Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Kenya today to try to end a political crisis that has killed at least 650 people, and called on the feuding parties to start talks and respect the rule of law.
The disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki in a December 27th vote unleashed weeks of ethnic and political violence that have severely damaged one of Africa's most promising economies and left around 250,000 people homeless.
Despite pressure from Western powers - and to the disgust of millions of ordinary Kenyans - Mr Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have still not met to discuss a way out of the crisis.
Mr Odinga says Mr Kibaki stole his victory and has used the power of the state to consolidate his control of the government.
Shortly after his arrival in Nairobi, Mr Annan told reporters the two sides must begin talks in good faith and respect the rule of law. "We expect all parties to enter into dialogue in good faith ... Our message to the parties is this: there can be no solution, no peace and stability ... without respect for the rule of law," Mr Annan said.
Mr Annan's mediation mission follows a similar attempt earlier this month by Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the head of the African Union, who was unable to get Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga to meet.
He faces an uphill task resolving a bitter dispute between two men who deeply distrust each other and are entrenched in apparently irreconcilable positions.
"Short of getting them both in a choke-hold and banging their heads together, Mr Annan has very little leverage on either President Kibaki and Mr Odinga or their respective entourages of myopic warmongers and sycophants," columnist Macharia Gaitho wrote in the Daily Nation newspaper.
Diplomats hope Mr Annan, a Nobel Peace laureate whose negotiating experience ranges from Israel to Darfur, can bring Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga to the same table, and possibly persuade them to join some sort of power-sharing arrangement. In the latest violence, a mob killed a member of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe by setting him on fire inside his car in the volatile Rift Valley, police said on Tuesday.
Police, who have banned all demonstrations, fired teargas to disperse supporters of Mr Kibaki in central Nairobi hours before Mr Annan's arrival. Riot police scattered about 100 government supporters who had been chanting "Lead on, Kibaki!", sending business people scurrying for cover.