Uneasy calm in Kenya as diplomacy continues.

International pressure by the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and South Africa among other countries has led to an uneasy calm for the past three days, especially in Nairobi. The diplomatic efforts of South African Nobel peace prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and US special envoy for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, are slowly bearing fruit as Kibaki and Odinga are less belligerent than before and are hinting at allowing international mediation in the crisis. The president of Ghana and chairman of the African Union, John Kufuor, has been proposed.

However the confusion caused by the electoral commission of Kenya is also taking its toll on the mediation efforts after the chairman, Samuel Kivuitu, admitted that he still does not know who really won the controversial polls. He has also admitted that he was pressured to act and that the tallying of presidential votes by his fellow commissioners and officers was flawed.

Three parliamentary constituencies will have to go back to the ballot box because of the messy polls. These are Kamukunji in Nairobi, Kilgoris in Rift Valley province, where blatant rigging occurred, and Wajir East in North Eastern province, near the Somali border, where two parliamentary candidates tied.

The discredited commission is also faced with the daunting task of holding a by-election in nine civic seats in the next three months, either because one of the candidates died before the elections or because the ballot papers printed in the United Kingdom showed anomalies.

Parliament is unlikely to be opened soon if this stalemate persists. The president