Ghanaian President John Kufuor on Thursday ended his mediation efforts in the Kenyan election dispute without any visible success as newly-elected President Mwai Kibaki began swearing in his new cabinet in Nairobi, according to dpa. Further talks would be chaired by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Kufuor said before flying back to Accra. There were "no signs of success" after the two-day talks between Kufuor, controversial President Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, according to a government spokesman in Nairobi. Kibaki meanwhile swore in his new cabinet on Thursday, as the opposition held on to its demand for new elections. He was declared winner of the December 27 presidential polls three days after they were held. Odinga and his supporters have, however, charged the incumbent with widespread vote-rigging and refused to concede defeat. So far, there have been no direct talks between Kibaki and the opposition. International mediation attempts meanwhile were in full swing. After South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu tried in vain to reach a compromise, on Thursday US envoy Jendayi Frazer, four former African leaders and ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France joined the talks. Kibaki has said that he wanted his cabinet to be broadly representative, and also named opposition politicians as ministers. However, no members of Odinga's Orange Democracy Movement (ODM) have been named in the new cabinet. All the key posts have already been filled, and even if ODM members were to enter the new government, it would only be in a peripheral role. International observers have also highlighted discrepancies in the voting process and cast doubt on the veracity of the result. Kenya's Human Rights Commission also on Thursday announced the opening of a judicial case against the country's Electoral Commission. A post-election crisis has led to the deaths of up to 600 people and the displacement of 250,000. Humanitarian aid efforts for the displaced were underway Thursday as the Kenyan Red Cross began distributing food in the slums of Nairobi. Tens of thousands of people receive food from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Kenyan government. Nairobi's slums are among the largest in Africa, with most residents dependent on casual labour and out of work since unrest began.
