By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

NAIROBI, Feb. 18 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Kenya's deadlocked political rivals Monday that the time for an agreement was "yesterday" and said the United States would provide a power-sharing government with money to fund reconstruction and the resettlement of people displaced in violence since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election.

"This is not a time for personal agendas," Rice said at a news conference on the lawn of the U.S. ambassador's residence here. "It is important that this is done, and done urgently. Kenyans need to sense that the country is moving forward."

U.S. diplomacy has had little effect so far in moving President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga closer to compromise.

Rice's visit was intended to intensify pressure on the leaders to solve a crisis that has undermined the stability of a country strategically important to the United States because of its proximity to the troubled countries of Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Rice met separately with Kibaki and Odinga on Monday. Odinga accuses his rival of stealing a second term in a voting process so flawed that international observers have said it is impossible to know who won.

After the election, the country exploded into weeks of demonstrations, riots and ethnically charged attacks, mostly in the western Rift Valley region. Militias there have driven away tens of thousands of people belonging to Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group, partly in response to old land grievances stirred up by the election.

In that violence and subsequent revenge killings, at least 1,000 people have died, according to Red Cross officials. An estimated 600,000 people around the country have been displaced.

During her visit, Rice expressed support for efforts by former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan to mediate between Odinga and Kibaki, whose government has seemed increasingly reluctant to relinquish any power. Opposition leaders accuse hard-liners in Kibaki's inner circle of stonewalling in hopes of tiring Annan so he would leave without a deal. On Monday, Odinga accused the government of training militias in several parts of Kenya. Kibaki's aides have denied both allegations.

Rice said she made it clear to both leaders that the Bush administration would not accept the status quo.

"The current stalemate and the circumstances are not going to permit business as usual with the United States," she said.

Rice flew to Nairobi from Tanzania, where President Bush is in the midst of a six-day, five-nation Africa tour to highlight his administration's development initiatives and efforts to fight AIDS and malaria. On Sunday, Bush urged Kenya's leaders to agree on the terms of a power-sharing government.

Rice did not specify what sanctions the administration might levy if a deal is not reached. In recent days, the United States has threatened to impose visa restrictions on leaders who refuse to compromise, and the State Department's top official for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, has raised the possibility of restricting aid.

The threats do not seem to have had an effect on Kibaki's government, however.

As she flew to Nairobi on Monday, Rice said she would try to "emphasize the positive" by offering an incentive in the form of aid to help deal with the crisis once a power-sharing government is established.

"The economy has taken a beating," said political commentator and newspaper columnist Charles Onyango-Obbo. "So I think from that point of view, maybe Kenya needs to manage its relationship with the U.S. a little better."