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Kenya's streets tense after
bloody protests
By C. Bryson Hull
Reuters
Saturday, January 19, 2008; 4:19 AM
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan riot police patrolled the capital on
Saturday and rival tribes faced off in a southwest town, after 23
people were killed in three days of protests called by the
opposition over a disputed election.
Tension stayed high despite opposition leader Raila Odinga's
statement on Friday that his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)
would take its fight off the streets and use other channels,
including talks with African leaders and economic boycotts.
About 650 people have been killed since President Mwai Kibaki won
a disputed December 27 election, mostly in police action against
banned protests and attacks on tribes seen as backing him.
Odinga says Kibaki stole the closest-ever election in the east
African nation from him. International observers say the count was
so chaotic it was impossible to tell who won, and the government
says the ODM also rigged votes.
In Narok town, paramilitaries guarded empty streets while hundreds
of members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe armed with machetes faced
pro-opposition Maasais with bows and arrows, a Reuters reporter
said.
A total of six people died on Friday as the two sides fought, and
homes were torched in the town, gateway to the Maasai Mara game
park. Police had to retreat late on Friday when they ran out of
tear gas.
Reinforcements arrived early on Saturday.
Kenya's paroxysm of violence, captured in TV images showing police
shooting, teargassing and beating protesters, has seriously
damaged its democratic reputation, prompted threats of aid cuts
and harmed one of Africa's strongest economies.
Roughly 250,000 have been forced from their homes in ethnic
attacks, the bulk of them in the pro-opposition Rift Valley. A
policeman was killed there on Friday by an arrow, police said.
MONEY RUNNING OUT
In Nairobi, paramilitaries in riot gear marched through the
central business district, where for the past three days business
closed early as police fired teargas and chased protesters through
the streets.
Nairobi's Mathare and Kibera slums were quiet, and in Kisumu,
scene of some of the worst police action and earlier rioting, was
coming back to life.
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