Strasbourg, 17/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption, on Thursday 17 January, of a resolution on the situation in Kenya, the European Parliament invites the authorities of this East African country to restore peace and respect of human rights and rule of law. It regrets that the “results of the presidential elections cannot be considered credible owing to widespread reports of electoral irregularities”.
The EP also deplores the fact that the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, appointed his cabinet unilaterally, which severely undermined mediation efforts. It calls for an independent examination of the presidential election results. Parliamentarians support the additional mediation efforts led by the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and invite the EU to closely monitor the mediation mission and, if required, to ensure immediate continuation of these mediation efforts by a high-level European Union delegation. If it were to prove impossible to have votes recounted in a credible and equitable manner by an independent body, then the Parliament would recommend further presidential elections. It nonetheless welcomes the fact that the Kenyan parliament, elected on Wednesday 16 January, had designated a president from the ranks of the opposition.
During the debate the day before, several MEPs asked how appropriate it was to suspend EU budgetary aid (EUROPE 9581). According to the text adopted, the EP regrets paying budgetary aid from the European Development Fund (EDF) to Mr Kibaki's government immediately after the elections, which could be misunderstood as politically biased. The EP asks for all further budgetary support to the government of Kenya to be frozen until a political resolution to the present crisis has been found. The request was rejected by European Development Commissioner Louis Michel. (A.B.)