Reports Leo Odera Omolo
Kenya was last Saturday sucked into the escalating crisis over rising food prices in Uganda after the two main players arrived in Nairobi within hours of each other.
There were fears that the visit to the country by both President Museveni and the Opposition leader Dr Kizza Basigye would trigger a diplomatic incident after one you brave Kenyan unhappy with the Uganda leaders treatment of protesters in Kampala threatened to mobilise anti Museveni protests.
A ring of security was thrown around the posh Hotel Intercontinental where the Uganda leader addressed business leaders under the auspices of Mindspeak forum. One young man braved the security and shouted at Museveni saying,” We can’t have you speak to us whereas back at home you are brutalising the Ugandan citizens. Then the young man was thrown out by Museveni detailed security who handed him to the Kenyan police.
But addressing a mammoth crowd of people, who attended the Labour Day at the Nyayo National Stadium, the COTU{K} secretary-General, Francis Atwoli, demanded that the young Kenyan who had attempted to shout Museveni down should be released immediately, because he has done nothing wrong to warrant his continued detention by the police. “We can’t have dictators here and can’t tolerate the rule of gun under dictatorship”shouted Atwoli.
So far there was not much news about the whereabouts of the Nairobi “hecklers”. The visit of the two leaders,one for business forum and the other for medical treatment would have acquired more political overtones had Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga visited Dr Basigye at the Nairobi Hospital where he is lying critically ill after the last Thursday beating by the combined Ugandan regular and military police during his arrest for the fourth time within one week.
The planned hospital visit by Odinga was called off at the eleven hours, after the authoritis at the Nairobi Hospital said the patient was too ill and not ready to receive any visitors. Basigye is believed to have undergone eye surgery to clean his eye lenses following the attack on him with policemen using pepper laced papers. He is also said to have sustained injuries on his both sides of the ribs as he was thrown forcefully onto an open pick-truck during the arrest.
President Mwai Kibaki on Saturday held talks with Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni who paid him a courtesy call at State House Nairobi.
President Museveni, who arrived on Saturday morning, is in the country to attend the Social Economic Transformation and the East African Political Federation Forum.
During their meeting, President Kibaki and President Museveni discussed ways of developing and improving cross-border infrastructure including the proposed construction of a new standard gauge railway line and the Kenya-Uganda petroleum pipeline.
In this regard, President Kibaki expressed Kenya’s commitment to continue improving sections of the Northern Corridor to ease the movement of goods and services between the two countries and the region in general.
The two leaders further discussed the East African integration and agreed that the process should move with speed so that the citizens of member states can fully enjoy the fruits of the regional economic bloc.
The two leaders also underscored the need for peace and stability as the cornerstone of development of the East African Community.