Kenya's feuding sides were on Tuesday set to discuss disputed elections that sparked the ongoing crisis in which more than 1000 people have died and 300 000 have been displaced across the country.

The talks resume a day after Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's chief apartheid-era negotiator, pulled out after the government rejected his bid to help broker crisis talks, accusing him of favouring the opposition.

Finding a mediator

Former UN chief and talks mediator Kofi Annan said he was still searching for a mediator, but warned that the current phase of talks is expected to be tough since it ventures into politics, the crux of the dispute.

On Tuesday "we begin our work on the political issues. The crisis arising out of the December 2007 elections, that is going to take hard negotiations, understandably give and take," Annan told reporters.

But the focal point of most of the recent violence, the Rift Valley in western Kenya, remained tense after 74 people died over the weekend in attacks between ethnic Kisiis and Kalenjins. Of those, about 20 Kalenjins died in clashes with police.

The bodies of three people were found on Monday in the bush in western Kenya, police said, from wounds apparently inflicted by arrows.

About 4000 Kikuyus, the group which has dominated Kenya's politics and business since independence in 1963, have fled their homes near the Rift Valley town of Eldoret over the past three days, a Red Cross official said.

"The movement continues," said the official.

Ramaphosa fails to win trust

Ramaphosa, a former trade unionist who became a wealthy businessman in post-apartheid South Africa, denied he had business dealings with opposition leader Raila Odinga as claimed by the government.

But he acknowledged that he had failed to win the trust of both sides.

"I thought that I should withdraw and go back to South Africa so that I do not become a stumbling block," he told reporters.

Talks between representatives of the rival leaders resumed at a Nairobi hotel after a roadmap for negotiations was reached on Friday to end weeks of turmoil triggered by Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election.

Negotiators presented a series of proposals to promote reconciliation including holding joint peace rallies and setting up a South African-style truth commission.

"There are no band-aids," Annan told journalists. "We are looking at the root causes to reduce tensions and reach results that will stand the test of time."

Deadline and death toll

Talks were set to continue on Tuesday. Annan has set a deadline of seven to 15 days to resolve the Kenya crisis in which more than 1000 people have been killed since elections on 27 December.

"The numbers are very overwhelming ... in about 50 camps throughout the country ... we have spent 200 million shillings in helping them (displaced people)," an official said.

The government announced it was lifting a ban on live broadcasts that was imposed on 30 December, a few days after the ethnic attacks erupted.

Kibaki's tribe, the Kikuyu, suffered heavily in the first wave of violence following the 27 December vote at the hands of Odinga's Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, but there have since been numerous revenge attacks.

In Nakuru, district commissioner Wilfred Wanyangah said the number of displaced people had increased from 14 000 to 26 000 over the past three weeks as villagers flee tense rural areas.

"This crisis has overwhelmed us and we were not prepared for it," he told reporters in the northwestern town.

Weeks of turmoil have delivered a major blow to Kenya's tourism industry, the top foreign currency earner, while tea production and agriculture have also been hard hit.

AFP

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