In an open letter to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, the chair of TAEF, Mathatha Tsedu, condemned the unfolding violence in that country in which journalists had become the victims as well.

"As editors our responsibility is to reflect the reality on the ground, and our Kenyan brothers and sisters have been doing an excellent job in telling the unfolding story.

But it is a story we should not tell because it should not be happening.

The barbarism that has emerged in Naivasha and Nakuru and the slums of Nairobi, and the militias that are now the new law, are an indictment to both President Kibaki and Raila Odinga," the TAEF statement reads.

"As an organisation representing editors in Kenya and elsewhere, the behaviour of the marauding squads of killers tarnish our name as Africans and we stand to say, for all to hear: NOT IN OUR NAME.

We believe both Kibaki and Odinga should exercise leadership and bring the mayhem to an end.

And if they cannot, they should step aside and allow a new interim structure to emerge that would calm the situation and bring Kenya back from the abyss it is in".

TAEF called on both leaders to respect the rights of citizens and to lift the ban on live broadcasting, which was imposed on December 30.

Finally, TAEF called on African heads of state meeting in Addis Ababa to take steps to ensure that the peacemaking efforts of former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, were enhanced and for the summit to make its voice heard on the wanton abuse of human rights by Kenyan authorities.

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