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More protests in Kenya as 'mediators'
arrive
18/01/2008 07:39 - (SA) Nairobi -
Kenya on Friday braced for a final day of nationwide protests over
the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, feared to turn
violent, as would-be mediators arrived in the country.
Kenyan police violently dispersed rioters on Thursday, killing at
least five people across the country and wounding several others
in the latest post-poll violence that has claimed over 700 lives
and displaced some 260 000 people.
But opposition leader Raila Odinga said seven people had been
killed in Nairobi alone, mainly in or around the capital's Mathare
slum district, a charge police officials dismissed.
"No amount of propaganda will deter the force from executing its
legal mandate with a view to providing a secure environment for
the full resumption of our country's social and economic
activities," police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe said in a statement.
Nationwide rioting that started after the re-election of Kibaki
morphed into tribal killings and looting, mainly in the western
regions, with Odinga maintaining he was rigged aside.
Government rejected mediators
African Union chief and Ghana President John Kufuor failed to
launch face-to-face talks between the Kenyan foes and instead
handed the battered baton to ex-United Nations chief Kofi Annan.
Annan, who delayed his Tuesday trip to Kenya over a flu infection,
is to lead Graca Machel, the wife of South African former
president Nelson Mandela, and former Tanzanian president Benjamin
Mpaka in trying to mediate.
Machel and Mkapa arrived on Thursday, but the government has
rejected mediators saying there was crisis in the country, but
would welcome facilitators of dialogue.
Washington blamed both Kibaki and Odinga for the deadly deadlock
that threatens to destabilize the east African nation, home to 37
million people.
"Both sides bear equal responsibility for the fact that there is
not a political settlement," said State Department spokesperson
Sean McCormack.
The Commonwealth on Thursday stepped up international pressure on
Kibaki, with the group's chief Don McKinnon saying that procedures
after the vote "did not meet international standards".
Police said two people had been shot dead in Mathare and three
others, including a woman killed by a stray bullet, in the western
opposition stronghold of Kisumu, bringing their total toll from
two days of clashes with opposition protesters to seven.
Odinga said Thursday that more than 1 000 people have been killed
in the post-election chaos, which has shattered Kenya's image as a
beacon of stability in East Africa and dealt a serious blow to the
region's largest economy.
Odinga called three days of demonstrations after mediated efforts
to bring the two sides together failed last week.
Fresh challenge
But once protests began on Wednesday, police cracked down in a
grim echo of the clashes and tribal killings first sparked by the
presidential poll.
In Eldoret, hospital workers said on Thursday that police had
fired tear gas inside a hospital and live rounds outside it.
Although downtown Nairobi remained relatively calm, police fired
tear gas in front of a Nairobi hotel, near a group of opposition
officials.
"We are determined to get to Uhuru Park (for the main protest) no
matter what it takes. We are even ready to die," Najib Balala, a
top Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) official, told AFP afterwards.
Police said they had shot and wounded two youths in the capital's
Kibera slum and thwarted an attempt to loot a cargo train there.
A spokesperson for Odinga's ODM said in a statement that the party
would include reports of police violence, including images of
police beating protesters captured on local television, in a
complaint to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
"This killing and other acts of violence inflicted on peaceful
protesters will be part of the case we are filing," said Salim
Lone in a statement.
Odinga warned on Wednesday that the opposition victory this week
in winning a vote for the position of parliamentary speaker had
been the start of a fresh challenge to Kibaki's rule.
Government spokesperson Alfred Mutua charged that the opposition
was keen on destroying the ordinary way of life for Kenyans.
Meanwhile, the United Nations launched an appeal for $41.8m to
help some 500 000 people affected by the Kenya crisis.
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