Kenyan politician and Prime Minister, Raila Amollo Odinga has urged African leaders to oust President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe from power, the New Sudan Vision reports.

.

"It's time for African governments... to push him out of power," Mr Odinga told BBC after meeting with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. "I do believe strongly that if the leadership in South Africa took a firm stand and told Mugabe to quit he will have no choice but to do so," Odinga said.

President Robert Mugabe came to power following a long war for independence of Zimbabwe. On April 18, 1980 Zimbabwe earned its independence from Great Britain after the Lancaster House Agreement was signed. At that time the land issue, a hot button issue in Zimbabwe, nearly broke down the talks between Zimbabwe and Britain. However, the then British government under Margaret Thatcher agreed to fund reform on a willing buyer, willing seller principle, where white farmers who were unwilling to give up their land would be bought out by funds provided by the British through the Zimbabwean government. But 20 years later in 2000, 4,500 white farmers still owned 70% of the best land in the country [BBC]. To correct historical inequality in land ownership, President Mugabe introduced a fast tract land reform that involved acquiring of 11 million hectares from white landowners (an estimated 90 percent of the commercial farmers) for redistribution to an estimated 300,000 new black settlers and about 30,000 black commercial farmers.

President Mugabe's fast tract land reform was so controversial that it led to a huge backlash from the West with Britain at the forefront. On December 2001, the United States of America passed the punitive Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which was co-drafted with help of a white Zimbabwean Parliamentarian [BBC]. President Bush signed it into law.

He said, "My administration shares fully the Congress' deep concerns about the political and economic hardships visited upon Zimbabwe by that country's leadership. I hope the provisions of this important legislation will support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle to effect peaceful democratic change, achieve economic growth, and restore the rule of law."

However, Mugabe saw it otherwise. "Our economy is under siege," he told journalists. "An economy which should really have had a political environment protecting it, protecting it by way of a state of emergency, and this because of the actions of our enemies, led by Britain, who have imposed sanctions on us."

Since the land reform, Zimbabwe's economy has been collapsing because of Western led sanctions, according to Zimbabwe government, but the opposition attributes it to Mugabe's mismanagement.

In March Mugabe narrowly lost the elections to the opposition under Morgan Tshangarai but the Constitution calls for a run-off in absence of a clear majority. The opposition later pulled out of the run-off few days prior to the elections fearing the elections would not be 'free and fair.' Meanwhile, Mugabe won but faced mounting pressure to form a coalition with the opposition. Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa at that time was asked to broker the talks. A power sharing deal was signed in September but it has since deadlocked.

Speaking to BBC Raila Odinga who was made Prime Minister after violence erupted in Kenya elections where his Orange Movement claimed the government rigged the election they had won, said; "Power-sharing is dead in Zimbabwe and will not work with a dictator who does not really believe in power-sharing."

On Wednesday, Zimbabwe government declared a state of emergency over cholera epidemic.