U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Kenya Friday to meet Raila Odinga, the opposition leader of the orange Democratic Movement in an effort to put an end to the violence triggered a month ago since the election.

He made an appeal to both sides to stop the violence which brought the deaths of over 850 people in just one month.

Ban said to journalists in Nairobi: "My message to the government and people of Kenya is to stop this violence and to solve all these issues ... through dialogue in a peaceful manner.”

By his side were Kofi Annan, his predecessor, and the representatives of the negotiation teams for President Mwai Kibaki and Odinga.

His one-day visit comes a day after the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African leaders urged for measures to be taken in order to put an end to the turmoil in Kenya.

Ban said: “You are taking a very important historical responsibility at this critically important junction. What I'd like to ask you is to look beyond these individual interests, look beyond the party lines, look towards the future, the brighter future of your country," CNN reports.

After the re-election of Kibaki on December 27, 2007, the country has been swept by violence.

Over 300,000 Kenyans are now refugees.

Kibaki is blamed by Odinga for stealing the vote, while he says that the elections were legitimate.

International observers can’t say who tells the truth as the count turned out to be so chaotic that it wasn’t possible to tell.

Ben is also scheduled to meet with civil leaders, like 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, an environmental and political activist, according to U.N. spokesman Nasser Ega-Musa in Kenya.

Both negotiating teams vowed to talk at the meeting with Ban.

Kibaki's Justice Minister Martha Karua told Ban: “We are committed to ensure that we find a resolution to the issues that are facing us,” Reuters quoted.