MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From NPR News, this ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
Diplomatic efforts to break the political impasse in Kenya are in full swing. The country has been in turmoil since Sunday when dubious election results gave President Mwai Kibaki a second term; challenger Raila Odinga has refused to concede. European ambassadors are involved along with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer, even South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has made the rounds.
NPR's Gwen Thompkins reports from Nairobi.
GWEN THOMPKINS: Archbishop Desmond Tutu this week met with all the players in Kenya's current political crisis. Raila Odinga, the populist challenger who is convinced that the presidential vote was rigged against him, President Mwai Kibaki who says he won fair and square, and Kalonzo Musyoka, the second runner-up and a one time ally of Odinga who has since sided with Kibaki.
When Tutu was asked whether he felt hopeful about an end to the stalemate that has triggered violence nationwide, he said, yes, sort of.
Archbishop DESMOND TUTU (South Africa): I am always a prisoner of hope. If you could maintain that in a situation, like South Africa, then you can do so almost anywhere else. But am I more hopeful now than I was? Yes.
(Soundbite of laughter)
THOMPKINS: That note of uncertainty in Tutu's voice is shared by many Kenyans. Election year violence is not new here, but the cataclysms that have followed the 2007 race have prompted many to question whether the nation can ever be the same again. Such deep, ethnic and political antagonisms are being expressed between neighbors that more than 300 people have been killed nationwide.
The most commonly mentioned belligerents are the president's tribe, the Kikuyu, and Odinga's tribe the Luo, but many others are fragmenting.
Ms. WANGARI MAATHAI (Nobel Peace Prize winner): People are dying. People are now in refugee camps. They are hungry. People are not able to travel. I mean, there are hundreds of people out there who are suffering.
THOMPKINS: Kenya's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, was also in the room with Tutu. Speaking to the BBC, she urged Kibaki and Odinga to put aside lesser concerns and make peace.
Ms. MAATHAI: I have a lot of hope in both Honorable Raila Odinga and President Kibaki; that they would all rise up to the occasion.
THOMPKINS: Last Sunday's official tally of the presidential vote gave Kibaki the win by just over 200,000 ballots. But irregularities in the counting have prompted skepticism from European Union election monitors.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said publicly today that the election was rigged.
Mr. BERNARD KOUCHNER (Minister of Foreign Affairs, France): (Through translator) Whether the election is rigged or not, I think so. Many think so, the American thinks so, the British thinks so, and they know the know the country well.
THOMPKINS: President Kibaki has rejected Odinga's calls for a new election, saying he will agree only if the Kenya High Court rules in Odinga's favor.
Here's Kibaki's spokesman Alfred Mutua.
Mr. ALFRED MUTUA (Spokesman, Kenyan Government): That is all - we want is the rule of law and order followed.
THOMPKINS: Emboya Ochang(ph) is a spokesman for Odinga's political party. He says the matter must ultimately be decided in the court of public opinion.
Mr. EMBOYA OCHANG (Spokesperson, Odinga's Political Party): We felt we don't need - we have - we don't have any recourse except maybe to go to the streets.
THOMPKINS: Thousands of Odinga supporters were rebuffed from rallying Thursday in downtown Nairobi. Washington insists that Kibaki and Odinga must come up with their own solutions. And a conversation at Odinga party headquarters today brought home how entrenched ethnic tensions have become. One Luo man hung up on a telephone caller and said, someone is trying to speak to me in Kikuyo. His colleague said, well, talk to him in Kikuyo. And the Luo man asked, why should I?
Gwen Thompkins, NPR News, Nairobi.