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Nairobi: A five-nation east African bloc wants "suspect" actions during vote tallying from Kenya's disputed presidential polls investigated and guilty parties held accountable, it said in a report.
Riots and ethnic clashes have killed 500 people across Kenya since President Mwai Kibaki's re-election following the December 27 ballot, which his rival Raila Odinga says was rigged.
The crisis has choked supplies of fuel and other goods to a swathe of east African countries, and forced more than 6,000 refugees into neighbouring Uganda alone.
"The Post Polling Period was characterised by uncoordinated and suspect actions," East African Community (EAC) observers said in a report on Sunday, citing statements by Kenya's electoral commission (ECK) chairman, who said he could not trace some returning officers who had vanished with crucial paperwork.
It said ECK boss Samuel Kivuitu displayed "incompetence and weakness". His actions, combined with the delay announcing the results, amounted to "gross mismanagement" of the vote counting.
Undermined
"This critically undermined the credibility of the final stage of the electoral process," said the report by the EAC, which groups Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
"The anomalies cited in the tallying process should be investigated and the ECK officials or any other persons found to be responsible should be held accountable."
The wave of unrest since the ballot, which international observers said was flawed, has dented the democratic credentials of east Africa's biggest economy and shocked world powers.
The United Nations says 250,000 Kenyans have been uprooted by the violence and that half a million will need emergency aid including food handouts.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due in Nairobi this week to lead a new push for peace after African Union chairman and Ghanaian President John Kufuor failed to broker a deal.
Addressing hundreds of cheering worshippers at a Pentecostal church in the capital yesterday, Odinga said his side was ready to talk, but only if the discussions would bring justice.
"The world has been watching what you can call the theatre of the absurd. Kenyans spoke, Kenyans wanted change and Kenyans will get a change," Odinga said. "I can see the light at the end of the tunnel."
Upping the stakes on Friday, his party called for three days of nationwide protests beginning on Wednesday in defiance of a police ban on all political rallies. It also demanded international sanctions be imposed on Kibaki's administration.
On Saturday, the European Union and United States warned there could be "no business as usual" with Nairobi unless a political compromise was agreed that restored stability.
Displaced Kenyans scared to go home
Kenyans displaced by post-poll violence in Nairobi's slums say they are unable to go home for fear of more chaos during opposition rallies this week.
"So long as the politics and war are still there, we can't go back. We're afraid," said 44-year-old businessman Collins Otiamo before a mob burned his shop, as he queued for clothes and medicine handouts.
Riots, ethnic clashes and looting erupted across opposition strongholds after President Mwai Kibaki was narrowly re-elected at polls his opposition challenger Raila Odinga says were rigged.
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