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17 January, 2008
NAIROBI (AFP) - Kenyan police battled demonstrators in opposition strongholds with live rounds and tear gas for a second consecutive day Thursday, and the opposition accused police of killing seven protesters.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga said seven had been killed, including a driver for a Kenyan opposition member of parliament who was shot by police as he attempted to leave his house in the Kasarani district which includes the sprawling Mathare slum, an opposition stronghold.
"Six of them were shot by uniformed police officers," the MP, Elizabeth Ongoro, told reporters.
Kenyan police said two people had been shot dead in clashes in Mathare and that they had killed two demonstrators in the western opposition stronghold of Kisumu.
"The two young men who were killed were part of the demonstrators and they started hurling stones at the officers. That is when officers fired at them," said a senior officer who requested anonymity.
Witnesses said police fired tear gas and live shots into the air during the day to disperse hundreds of protesters in Nairobi's slums, and in the western cities of Kisumu and Eldoret.
More than 700 people were killed in nationwide unrest after the December 27 election and the Commonwealth has stepped up international pressure on Kibaki, with the group's chief Don McKinnon saying that procedures after the vote "did not meet international standards."
Odinga, who charges that Kibaki rigged the count, repeated Thursday a claim that more than 1,000 people had been killed in the post-election violence.
The crisis has shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of stability in a restive region and dealt a serious blow to the largest economy in east Africa.
Odinga called three days of demonstrations after mediated efforts to bring the two sides together failed last week. Two people were killed on the first day of the protests Wednesday, police said.
Police cracked down on protesters with guns and sticks, in a grim echo of the severe clashes and tribal killings sparked by the presidential poll. On top of the dead, more than a quarter of a million people have been displaced.
The opposition said it would ignore a nationwide police ban on rallies.
"The demonstrations are going on and we are neither going to be cowed or stop at anything until all our aims are achieved," opposition Orange Democratic Movement secretary general Anyang Nyongo told AFP.
Although Nairobi remained relatively calm, police at one point 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 ODM official, told AFP afterwards.
Police shot and wounded two youths in the capital's Kibera slum, police and witnesses said.
Police also said they had thwarted an attempt to loot a cargo train there.
In the opposition strongholds of Kisumu and Eldoret, riot police fired teargas on youths who had erected roadblocks on major roads, AFP correspondents said.
A spokesman for the ODM said in a statement Thursday that they 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 protestors will be part of the case we are filing," said Salim Lone in a statement.
Odinga warned Wednesday that a first victory for his movement in parliament -- where their candidate won the position of speaker this week -- had been the start of a fresh challenge to Kibaki's rule.
"The main intent of the opposition is to destroy the way of life of ordinary Kenyans," government spokesman Alfred Mutua charged Thursday.
Mediation efforts between the two sides suffered a fresh blow Tuesday when former UN chief Kofi Annan postponed a scheduled mission to Kenya due to "severe flu".
Graca Machel, the wife of South African former president Nelson Mandela, and Tanzanian former president Benjamin Mpaka both arrived in Kenya on Thursday, a foreign ministry official said.
They had been expected to take part in mediation efforts with Annan.