African Union chair to go on Kenya mission: minister

By Kwasi Kpodo

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghanaian President John Kufuor will visit Kenya next week as chairman of the African Union to meet both sides in the country's political dispute and try to end ethnic violence, his foreign minister said on Saturday.

Ethnic violence has killed at least 300 people in the East African country since a disputed election on December 27 of which incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner despite widespread allegations of vote-rigging.

"The Kenya president is inviting President Kufuor in his position as the AU chairman to visit that country to assess the situation and advise ... He is going there next week to talk to both sides on ways of ending the violence," Ghanaian Foreign Minister Akwasi Osei-Adjei told Reuters.

Osei-Adjei was talking by phone from Ghana's second city of Kumasi, where he traveled with Kibaki's envoy, Kenyan Deputy Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula, to meet Kufuor on Saturday.

"I must emphasize that we are not going to go there immediately to validate the election results as to who has won or not," Osei-Adjei said.

"It is an African problem and we are going to go there in that context, of course with consultations," he said.

Kufuor and his team have had several conversations with Kibaki and Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga in recent days, but Osei-Adjei said on Friday Kibaki's administration had not given him the go-ahead to travel to Kenya to mediate.

"Before you travel to somebody's country, the protocol demands that you are given clearance by your host," Osei-Adjei, who chairs the African Union council of foreign ministers, said on Friday.

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Giles Elgood)