Raila Odinga rejects talks with Kibaki as “public relations gimmickry” - Obama calls home
Kenya’s opposition leader rejected talks with the president on Tuesday, describing an invitation to meet as “public relations gimmickry” that would undermine attempts to end the ethnically-charged election standoff that has killed more than 500 people.
Intensifying the diplomatic pressure from the United States, Barack Obama phoned the opposition leader “to express grave concern over the election outcome,” Odinga’s spokesman, Salim Lone, told The Associated Press. Lone said Obama, whose father was Kenyan, also said he planned to call President Mwai Kibaki.
Obama’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the senator spoke to Odinga on Monday for about five minutes before going into a rally in Lebanon, N.H.
On Monday, Kibaki invited Odinga to his official residence for a meeting Friday, but the opposition leader declared Tuesday he would not attend. He said any meeting between the two would be “public relations gimmickry” on Kibaki’s part.
