Senator Barack Obama, candidate for the Democratic Party, made attempts on Tuesday to bring peace between the warring factions in Kenya, the birth country of his late father. Since presidential elections held in Kenya on December 27, won by President Mwai Kibaki, there has been bitter fighting between supporters of Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claimed that Kibaki stole the elections, and supporters of the government, resulting in over 800 deaths.

Reports are that Obama spoke on a popular FM radio station (Capital FM) in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital on Tuesday. In his broadcast Obama urged President Kibaki and Odinga to negotiate without conditions. He said that refusal to do this would be to ignore the will of Kenyans and the urging of the united international community. He further stated that now is the time for Kenya’s leaders to rise above party affiliation and “past decisions for the sake of peace.”

Also attempting to negotiate peace between Kibaki and Odinga and their supporters was former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. Annan presided over talks with both leaders on Tuesday, but there was no report of any success arising from that meeting.

As the violence continues in Nairobi, a young parliamentarian, Mugabe Were, recently elected to the Kenyan parliament as part of the slim majority gained by Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement, was murdered when he arrived at his home. A gang known as the Mungiki, whose members are from Kibaki’s Kikuyu community claimed responsibility for Were’s murder.

After weeks of attacks from Opposition supporters who claim that Kibaki’s reelection was based on fraud, the Kikuyus are seen to be retaliating. They have been blamed for at least 28 deaths in recent days.