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Protests in the city as police
bar ODM from Uhuru Park
Published on January 4, 2008, 12:00 am
BY Standard Team
Violent protests returned to the city, making Nairobi a ghost town.
On Thursday, normalcy witnessed on Wednesday was shattered as
violent protests rocked the city. Tension reached its peak at 9am
when the protestors gathered in many parts of the city chanting
ODM slogans.
In the city centre, the few businesses that had opened closed
their doors when rowdy youths stormed the streets.
For an hour, they engaged police in a cat-and-mouse game as they
were chased round buildings.
By 11am, the police seemed to have chased the protesters to
downtown Nairobi, where they retreated for the rest of the
afternoon.
The day-long drama began when the youths attempted to enter Uhuru
Park, the venue of the planned prayer meeting ODM leader, Mr Raila
Odinga, had called.
But hundreds of armed police officers, who had sealed off the
historic grounds, deterred them.
The officers, drawn from the regular and Administration police and
the GSU sealed all entrances to the park.
They formed a human fence round the grounds, making the park
inaccessible. Other officers patrolled the vast grounds on
horseback.
Armed with guns, rungus, teargas canisters and shields, the
officers had arrived at the grounds as early as 5am.
All roads leading to the grounds were barricaded by police
officers with rocks.
The usually busy Uhuru Highway was deserted as motorists kept away
from the city centre following the chaos.
A battery of local and international journalists kept vigil at
Uhuru Park, anticipating the arrival of the ODM leaders. But this
did not happen.
The usually noisy grounds were serene save for the occasional
banter among scribes and police officers.
Five-star hotels near the grounds beefed up their security and did
body searches on patrons entering the premises.
A manager at one of the hotels, who sought anonymity, told The
Standard that the political crisis had greatly affected business.
He said many tourists had cancelled their bookings, citing
security reasons.
"We are operating low turnovers on sales and the bed occupancy
among foreigners is very modest," he said.
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