(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-23 15:16

NAIROBI - Kenya's opposition has vowed to embark on a "mass civil disobedience campaign next week" if its demands are not met in the intensive negotiations aimed at breaking the political stalemate in the east African nation.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) member Ababu Namwamba said his party would hold anti-government protests if the talks continued at their current pace.

"If by Wednesday, the 27th day of February, 2008, no tangible outcome is achieved from the mediation process then the (ODM) party members are called upon to prepare for immediate civil mass disobedience," he said in a statement received here Saturday.

Namwamba issued the statement on behalf of lawmakers who believe talks between negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was in Nigeria on Friday, are being stalled by the government representatives.

Violence erupted in Kenya after the December 27 presidential elections, when incumbent Kibaki of the Party of National Unity ( PNU) was declared victor.

Odinga's backers said the election was rigged, and he and his supporters declined to recognize the election as valid.

More than 1,000 people were killed and several hundred thousand have been displaced in the turmoil.

The violence has subsided since the reconciliation talks began but many Kenyans fear it could revive if a political solution to the crisis is not found.

The lawmakers are calling for the prime minister's post and proportional sharing of powers in any new government.

If the demands aren't met, the movement pledges to start its civil disobedience by Wednesday and will employ such tactics as work slowdowns to apply pressure in the talks.

"The irreducible minimum is the executive premiership as provided in the Bomas Draft, and there must be clear separation of State and Government," Namwamba said.

The ODM lawmakers also said the party would mobilize its supporters to come out in civil disobedience if, by Wednesday, there is no accord from Serena Hotel, the venue of the talks.

The civil disobedience was a scaling down from a threat earlier in the week for mass action.

Both sides have agreed to talks and eventually gave the go- ahead for the creation of an independent committee to investigate irregularities in the poll and suggest reforms.

But the opposition parliamentary group has been accusing the PNU of "procrastination and obvious time buying games" at the talks, which have been overseen by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan.

The statement was drafted Friday when government negotiators failed to show up for negotiations on time, which the opposition said were being boycotted. Government negotiators arrived late, however, and talks were being held.

The developments came as East African Community has warned of an economic slowdown throughout the region as a result of the Kenyan political crisis.

"Trade flows have been negatively affected and so have exchequer and business revenues," EAC Secretary General Juma Mwapachu said in a statement on Thursday.

"We can only promote and attract investments sustainably, as well as assure effective intra-regional trade, if we have enduring peace and stability."

The landlocked economies of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, South Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, largely rely on trade through the Kenyan port of Mombasa.