Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday slammed African leaders for blaming colonialism for lack of development and for remaining silent on the election crisis in Zimbabwe.
At a panel of prominent African presidents at the opening of the 18th World Economic Forum on Africa, Kenya's new prime minister spoke out on a host of issues including governance on the continent.
"Africa, the richest continent in the world in terms of resources, but it is the poorest continent," said Odinga, former opposition leader who came to power in a coalition government in April after a bloody post-election crisis which left at least 1,500 people dead.
He said the violence had shown "the soft underbelly of our society. We lived a lie that we are a united country but deep down there are ethnic tensions that run very deep."
"It is a continental problem and it is a problem of bad governance."
Odinga said he agreed with sentiments by South African President Thabo Mbeki that "things are changing, gradually," on the continent, giving a dig at his handling of the crisis across his border in Zimbabwe.
Mentioning former dictators such as Uganda's Idi Amin, Odinga said "gone are the days...when the rest of the world looked the other way."
"But still today it is unfortunate that in an African country elections can be held and no results are given for more than one month. And African leaders are silent about this. It should not happen anymore," he said.
"Let us say what we mean and mean what we say when it comes to African development."
Addressing the gathering of delegates in Cape Town Odinga said Africa -- facing enemies of ignorance, poverty, disease and bad governance -- did not need more aid, but investment and market access to goods that were produced in Africa.
He also blamed fast-growing China for driving up prices of steel, cement and fertiliser on world markets, raw materials which came from Africa and needed to be retained to develop the continent.
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