More Ethnic Killings Feared Amid Kenya Riots
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan police opened fire yesterday as protests against last month's disputed election took place across the East African country.
Simon Maina /AFP / Getty
A man jumps on a burned vehicle after he and other supporters of Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, set up burning barricades on a road in the Kibera slum of Nairobi yesterday.
Two people were killed in the western city of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold where burning tires blocked the roads. Witnesses said they were shot at by police — but the authorities claimed officers had only fired in the air.
Police also used live rounds in the capital, Nairobi, and in the town of Eldoret, wounding at least five people.
The latest clashes raised fears of more mass ethnic killings, like those that followed the election on December 27.
British and American attempts to settle Kenya's political crisis have come to nothing. President Kibaki, whose disputed re-election sparked the turmoil, has ignored their demand for him to include his defeated opponent, Raila Odinga, in a coalition government. The two men have not held a face-to-face meeting since the president claimed election victory on December 30.
Mr. Odinga responded by calling three days of national protests. The authorities gave warning that all opposition demonstrations were illegal.
"These things have been outlawed and the security forces have the duty to prevent them taking place to protect law-abiding Kenyans," the government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, said.
Mr. Odinga's followers made their fifth attempt to mass in Uhuru Park in central Nairobi yesterday — and for the fifth time were rebuffed by riot police.
Elsewhere, demonstrators chanted "no Raila, no peace," and carried mock coffins, supposedly intended for the president. One banner read: "Kibaki rest in peace, in a coffin, buried alive."
Mr. Odinga pledged that his Orange Democratic Movement would defy the official ban and hold more demonstrations today and tomorrow.
"There are thousands of our supporters who wish to demonstrate their bitter disappointment with this stolen election," Mr. Odinga said. "They are being prevented from doing so by this government, which is imposing a state of siege in this country."
At least 600 people have been murdered and 260,000 displaced since Mr. Kibaki was sworn in for another term as president. Ethnic clashes have taken place between members of Mr. Odinga's Luo tribe and the president's Kikuyu people, starting a cycle of murder and revenge.
