US interested in Kenya's fair polls, says official

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Kenyan politicians to avoid the sort of actions that five years ago nearly caused the country to slip “over the precipice,” a senior US official said on Saturday. Read (Clinton tells Kibaki and Raila to ensure free and fair elections)

Ms Clinton's message to Kenyan candidates, the official said, was “don’t try to influence or undermine the work of the election commission.”

She had told President Kibaki and members of his cabinet: “Kenya must have good elections,” the official added.

Speaking in Nairobi, the State Department official recalled the “nearly three months of widespread violence, bloodshed and retribution” that followed the 2007 elections.

“If it were not for the diplomacy of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, this country could have easily slipped over the precipice,” the official said, according to a State Department transcript of the briefing.

A repeat of the 2008 chaos could have ruinous economic effects, the official added.

“The number of tourists coming into the country over the next 18 months dropped precipitously,” the briefer said. “The amount of new investment coming into the country also dropped, and the GDP of the country collapsed from some 7.5 percent down to under 3 percent. All of this was as result of those elections.”

The official had words of praise for Chief Justice of the High Court Dr Willy Mutunga.

He was described as “probably one of this country’s leading jurists and lawyers” and “a person who is known for his credibility and his integrity.”

“The secretary wanted to demonstrate our support for the independence of the judiciary and wanted to encourage him to use the court to defend the Constitution and the rights that people have under the Constitution and not to allow impunity to reign either in political excesses or in business and commercial activities,” the official recounted.