GERALD LeMELLE
Executive director of Africa Action, LeMelle said today: “The U.S. government initially expressed support for the government-announced outcome of the election despite overwhelming evidence that something was wrong. There seemed to have been some disconnect between the U.S. embassy in Nairobi — which has taken a relatively cautious approach to the crisis — and the State Department which seemed determined to back Mwai Kibaki because of his support for ‘War on Terror’ initiatives and the perception that he is more pro-business than Raila Odinga. The U.S.’s actions are adding turbulence to a country in Africa that has been quite stable. … The U.S. should come out more forcefully in calling for a recount of the votes.” LeMelle lived in Kenya for ten years.

See “Kenya: U.S. And Britain Call for Acceptance of Results,” in The Nation (Kenya).
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MUTHONI WANYEKI
Wanyeki is executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, a non-governmental organization. She is also a columnist for the weekly newspaper The EastAfrican; her latest column is titled “Impunity Must End at All Levels.”

NJOKI NJOROGE NJEHU
Njehu is executive director of Daughters of Mumbi Global Resource Center, a Nairobi-based independent, non-partisan, non-ethnic network launched in 2004.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167