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Police battle Kenyan protesters for second day
2008-01-18 09:25:00
By NAIROBI
Kenyan police clashed with opposition members yesterday in a second day of unrest over President Mwai Kibaki`s disputed re-election.
In opposition strongholds in the capital and the western town of Kisumu, police fired tear gas and bullets on the second of three days of banned rallies called by opposition leader Raila Odinga`s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
Odinga, who insists that the government stole the election, said police shot dead seven protesters in Nairobi.
``Police are shooting innocent civilians at will… The government has turned this country into a killing field of innocents,`` he told reporters, providing no further details.
Police had no immediate comment but have previously said they have shot ODM supporters engaged in looting.
In the Kibera slum in Odinga`s Nairobi constituency, a Reuters cameraman said people there had hijacked a train passing through and were stealing its cargo.
Kenya`s rapid plunge into crisis has tarnished its democratic credentials, horrified world powers, scared off tourists and hurt one of Africa`s most promising economies.
In three weeks since the December 27 vote, violence pitting police against protesters and opposition gangs against tribes seen as pro-Kibaki has caused about 620 deaths.
A quarter of a million people, mostly from Kibaki`s Kikuyu tribe, have been turned into refugees in the turmoil surrounding a vote that foreign observers, including the Commonwealth yesterday, say fell short of democratic standards.
The European Parliament yesterday recommended that budgetary aid be frozen until the crisis is solved although, unlike many of its African neighbours, Kenya is not aid-dependent.
Former UN head Kofi Annan, due to lead talks to end the standoff, is recovering from a bout of flu that delayed his trip, the United Nations said without saying when he would now be arriving.
With few options left as Kibaki has entrenched his administration and talks brokered by African leaders have
yielded nothing, the ODM has taken its fight to the streets.
The government accuses Odinga`s side of rigging votes, orchestrating ethnic killings and ignoring court challenges in favour of violence. The opposition says the courts are biased.
``They are just waking up at 10 o`clock, eating eggs and sausages, giving interviews and planning how to disrupt people`s lives,`` government spokesman Alfred Mutua told reporters.
In Burnt Forest, a Rift Valley town where some of the worst attacks on Kikuyus took place and thousands are staying at a camp under guard, a march by ODM supporters from the Kalenjin tribe escorted by paramilitary officers paralysed the highway.
``The situation is tense but they are marching peacefully, accompanied by police who are mostly from their tribe,`` said mechanic Simon Njuguna by telephone. Later, other police fired tear gas on them.
Truck drivers said they were stopped by Kalenjin gangs who stole fuel on the highway, the main route from Kenya`s port Mombasa into Uganda, Sudan and central Africa, Njuguna said.
In a repeat of Wednesday`s trouble, police chased protesters through downtown Nairobi, sending people scurrying as tear gas wafted into office buildings. Some shops closed.
In Nairobi`s Mathare slum, clouds of tear gas rose above the tin-roofed shacks as police firing weapons chased protesters through the muddy maze of homes.
``Some of them have guns and were shooting at us,`` an officer who declined to give his name said in Mathare, a slum were where well-armed tribal gangs have clashed previously.
In Kisumu, riot police fired in the air and struck at least one man as they battled youths who set up blazing roadblocks and gathered to protest, witnesses said.
On Wednesday, police shot dead three people in the town, saying they were attacked first.
The US and 12 other Western nations have warned that they could cut aid to the Kibaki government and have pressed the ODM to stop violence by its supporters.
The government, which gets less than 5 per cent of its budget from donors, said the threat was idle.
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