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3 Days of Kenya
Protests Leave 22 Dead
By TODD PITMAN
Friday, January 18, 2008 12:45 PM EST
NAIROBI, Kenya - Masai fighters battled rival tribesman loyal to
President Mwai Kibaki on Friday, with both sides using machetes,
swords, bows and arrows on the final and bloodiest day of protests
this week over Kenya's disputed election.
Police stand next to the body of a man who was attacked with
machetes and killed by unknown attackers, Friday, Jan. 18, 2008 in
the Mathare slum in Nairobi. With days of protests failing to
budge Kenya's president, a weakened opposition said Friday it
would turn to economic boycotts and strikes to keep up pressure
over disputed elections. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
In Nairobi's Kibera slum and the coastal tourist town of Mombasa,
police and demonstrators fought in the streets.
Three days of protests called by Kenya's opposition have dwindled
in strength, but at least 22 people have been killed, including
five who died in the ethnic fighting less than a dozen miles from
the premier Masai Mara game reserve in Narok, police chief Patrick
Wambani told The Associated Press.
Since the Dec. 27 election, Kibaki's Kikuyu people have been
chased from western Kenya by other ethnic groups.
A blood-smeared pickup truck carried the bodies of a 15-year-old
girl and a young man killed in Kibera, along with wailing
relatives.
"They killed my daughter. Kibaki must die," a woman screamed in
anguish. She said her daughter was washing utensils on her
doorstep when police opened fire and she was hit.
Demonstrators in the western town of Kisumu set fire to a truck,
then marched by the hundreds, pulling down telephone booths and
bus shelters and burning tires. In Nairobi, police fired tear gas
at a dozen protesters outside a downtown mosque.
Kenya exploded in violence after the Dec. 27 election. Opposition
leader Raila Odinga insists the president stole the vote, and
international observers and the electoral chief have questioned
the results.
As protests diminish and the days pass, Kibaki appears
increasingly unlikely to accede to demands he step down. His
mandate, however, is thin.
The opposition's best hope may rest in a power-sharing agreement
with Kibaki.
Despite the flawed poll, international pressure is likely to focus
on a power-sharing arrangement that leaves Kibaki as president.
The U.S. and other allies consider Kenya a vital partner in the
war on terrorism and a regional economic and military powerhouse
whose stability has stood in stark contrast to war-ravaged
neighbors like Sudan and Somalia, where Islamic extremism is rife.
More than 600 people have been killed in Kenya's election violence,
according to a government commission, in the worst turmoil since a
failed 1982 coup attempt.
Kenyan police released their own figures Friday, saying 510 people
had been killed in the election violence, including 82 killed by
police. Police, who had earlier denied charges they had killed
anyone since Kenya descended into turmoil, have recently been more
forthright, and critical of protesters.
The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch said in a weekend
statement that police were behind dozens of killings and that they
opened fire on both looters and opposition protesters under an
unofficial "shoot-to-kill" policy. Human Rights Watch said victims
included people hit by police gunfire on the fringes of protests.
The police statement released Friday said police were dealing with
"deception and manipulation of jobless people by their leaders.
Some have been coached into committing crimes without the benefit
of the bigger picture." It said the unnamed leaders were "exploiting
ethnicity, religion and subjective politics."
Also Friday, Kenyan police said they had arrested two Germans and
a Dutch national suspected of "terrorist activities." At least two
had ties to Odinga.
One, Andrej Hermlin-Leder, is a jazz musician married to a Kenyan
who "knows Mr. Odinga, he's a supporter of Mr. Odinga" and spends
a lot of time in Kenya, said opposition spokesman Salim Lone. "I
am astounded by the charge of terrorist activities."
Lone said a second suspect, Dutch woman Fleur van Dissel, recently
made a documentary about Odinga, which was aired on the private
Kenya Television Network days before the election. Details on the
third suspect were not immediately available.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the arrests had "nothing to do
with" connections to Odinga. He said the three "had footage of
security installations in the country" and were detained "purely
on criminal suspicion."
With the protests petering out, opposition spokesman Lone said
Odinga would call for a "boycott of companies owned by hard-liners
who are around Mr. Kibaki," including one of Kenya's biggest banks,
a prominent bus company and a major dairy producer. Lone also said
they would work with unions "to organize strikes in selected
industries," Lone said. He declined to give details.
"We are completely ready to negotiate in good faith. We want peace
in the country," Lone said. "Our people are suffering." Kibaki's
government has made similar statements, but both sides appear
recalcitrant and envoys from the U.S. and the African Union have
failed to even bring Odinga and Kibaki together for talks.
The United States blamed the leaders' deadlock for the unrest.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack added Kibaki and Odinga
needed to reach a compromise.
"We cannot have peace unless there is justice and they (protesters)
are demanding justice, not violence," Odinga said Friday.
Associated Press writers Katharine Houreld and Malkhadir M.
Muhumed in Nairobi; Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Eldoret; and Katy
Pownall in Kisumu contributed to this report.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
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