denier communiqué de la KATO ( organisme INDEPENDANT )

-----Original Message-----
From: KATO Secretariat [mailto:info@katokenya.org]
Sent: 17 January 2008 11:56
To: info@katokenya.org
Subject: KENYA SITUATION UPDATE: 17TH JAN 2008 07.30a.m.



REF : KATO CIRCULAR /JANUARY- 08/20



DATE : 17th January, 2008



TO : All KATO Members



Dear Member,



KENYA SITUATION UPDATE: 17TH JAN 2008 07.30a.m.



The following is an update from KTF for your information and use to update your Agents.



Yours sincerely,



Fred Kaigua

CHIEF EXECUTIVE



Thursday 17th January 2008: Situation Update: 07.30 a.m.



Tuesday 15th January saw the opening of the Kenya Parliament after the elections and this took place without any public disturbance. There was a strong police presence around parliament to ensure there was no disorder and the authorities decided not to close the Uhuru Highway so tourist traffic continued as normal past Parliament for airport transfers and for safaris departing or driving through Nairobi.



The peaceful re-opening of Parliament is another positive step towards having travel advisories revised by the international governments who have imposed warnings against travel to Kenya.



In Parliament it was noteworthy that the opposition had a majority: 105 seats to 102. This means the opposition should now be able to pursue their interests in Parliament rather than on the streets and we are all hopeful that the calm that has prevailed for over a week now will continue.



It is encouraging to see two positive comments from the leadership on opposite sides of the political divide quoted by the BBC today:



The opposition: ODM MP Najib Balala told the BBC's Network Africa programme: "We want to prove to the world we are not going to act in an uncivilised way, we are going to parliament, we are going to show that we are controlling parliament."



The government: Justice Minister Martha Karua told the BBC she believed cooler heads would prevail. "We are ready to navigate through a hung parliament through persuasion, through negotiations. We expect that eventually everybody will come to their senses, realise that we've got to learn to live with each other."



The main opposition party, ODM, had announced that they would hold rallies in different parts of the country from Wednesday through to Friday this week but issued assurances that that these are intended to be peaceful.



In both Nairobi and in Mombasa yesterday, several small groups attempted to assemble in different parts of both cities in response to the call for rallies but were quickly dispersed after minor skirmishes with the police and with no reports of any violence taking place. It is reported that a more serious demonstration took place in the Kibera slum in Nairobi but this was prevented from spreading beyond Kibera by the police.



In Kisumu it is reported that there were violent confrontations between police and demonstrators which were dispersed by the police but at this stage we do not have further details. In Eldoret demonstrators are reported to have been dispersed by police. It should be noted that the Kisumu-Kericho-Eldoret area is considered off-limits for tourists and is being avoided by all tour operators.



The security situation continues as before with no tourists affected at the beach resorts, in the international Nairobi hotels or in the wildlife parks and any violent confrontations between protesters and police confined to the slums and to places in Western Kenya far away from the areas currently visited by tourists.



Jake Grieves-Cook

KTF Spokesman