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Kenya opposition, police clash
at funeral
Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:43am EST
(Adds Odinga, details)
By Andrew Cawthorne and George Obulutsa
NAIROBI, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired teargas to
disperse stone-throwing youths at a funeral on Wednesday held by
the opposition for slum residents killed in a crackdown on
protests against President Mwai Kibaki's disputed election.
Several teargas canisters landed in the large football field in
Nairobi where coffins were laid out and opposition leader Raila
Odinga was winding up his oration.
"This is a war between the people of Kenya and a small clique of
very blood-thirsty people who want to cling on to power at all
costs," Odinga told the crowd of mourners as violence was erupting
on a road outside.
"Let us stand as one people to liberate our country."
The latest trouble came as former U.N. chief Kofi Annan was to
begin talks with Kibaki and Odinga to resolve a bloody stalemate
that threatens to wreck the east African nation's image as a
stable democracy and flourishing economy.
Adding to a death-toll of about 650 since the Dec. 27 election, at
least two more people were killed in a Nairobi slum during the
morning in the latest ethnic clashes since the vote.
Odinga says Kibaki stole the narrow victory, which has split the
country of 36 million down the middle.
Police had eased a ban on public demonstrations, in place since
Kibaki's Dec. 30 swearing-in prompted rioting and looting, to
permit a memorial led by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) for
what it called 28 "freedom fighters."
The day began peacefully as hundreds of supporters marched from
near the Kibera slum, a stronghold of Odinga's Luo tribe, carrying
coffins of people they say were shot by police there.
But the event turned violent when about a dozen youths on a major
highway outside stopped some cars, smashed windows and beat
occupants who did not belong to their Luo tribe.
Police moved in but held fire, witnesses said, as a growing crowd
of youths threw rocks at them. They eventually responded with
charges and fusillades of teargas, some of which landed in the
field, terrifying mourners and scattering ODM leaders.
As police pulled back, firing more teargas from the back of trucks,
the youths set upon a nearby post office, smashing windows,
starting a fire and tearing a wall down. They also smashed a row
of phone booths.
PROTESTS OFF
Earlier, opposition sources said ODM would call off protests
planned for Thursday.
"Annan has told us he will request no more street protests while
he is here, and I can tell you we will not be objecting to that,"
a senior Odinga aide told Reuters.
Annan, due to meet Kibaki and Odinga on Wednesday, met newly
elected parliament Speaker Kenneth Marende, who said face-to-face
discussion between the two Kenyan leaders "is going to be on the
table."
World powers have called on Kibaki and Odinga to hold urgent talks
after more than three weeks of unrest.
Underscoring the urgency of Annan's mission, two men were found
dead -- one stoned and one decapitated -- in Nairobi's Kariobangi
slum. Area police commander Paul Ruto said the fighting was
between Luos and Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group.
"We carried out an operation and have arrested five people. We
have found a panga (machete) with blood stains," Ruto said, next
to a truck holding the body with its head nearly off.
At least eight others were reported killed in the city and the
Rift Valley, local media said.
Odinga has demanded Kibaki stand down or face an election repeat,
which some diplomats have cautioned against as having too much
potential for further bloodshed.
But Odinga hinted he may accept the creation of a prime minister
post for him. "We are ready to share power with him. He remains
president and we take the position of prime minister," Odinga told
Germany's ARD television.
(Additional reporting by Joseph
Sudah, Duncan Miriri, Bryson Hull. Writing by Bryson Hull, Editing
by Giles Elgood)
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