NAIROBI, Kenya — Police firing tear gas and bullets halted protests Wednesday, blocking mass rallies the opposition hoped would show the power behind their demands for the president to step down. At least two people were fatally shot by police.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga called for three days of protests after violence that killed more than 600 people and international mediation failed to move President Mwai Kibaki. Observers say the vote tally from the Dec. 27 election was rigged.
“We will go the extra mile for democracy. We are ready for bloodshed,” said Philomen Bett, a teacher in the western city of Eldoret.
National police spokesman Eric Kiraithe had no word on casualties Wednesday, but a mortuary attendant in Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city, said there were two bodies with bullet wounds. Nurses in the city said they were treating three wounded people.
In Nairobi, at least three men were taken to a hospital after they were shot and wounded in the Kibera slum, where police fired tear gas and bullets to disperse protesters.
Odinga said two people were killed in Kisumu and one in another western town, Migori.
Riots and ethnic killings after the disputed vote have marred Kenya’s image as a stable democratic oasis in a war-ravaged region and damaged its tourist-dependent economy. The violence has also aggravated ethnic tensions and conflicts over land.
Police had declared Wednesday’s protests illegal. In Nairobi, riot police on horseback chased small clusters of protesters from skyscraper-lined streets downtown. Businesses shut as tear gas was fired, and thousands of panicked office workers in suits and high heels streamed away on foot.
Some people, annoyed at the disturbance, shouted “Raila go home!” His supporters chanted “No Raila. No peace.”
Odinga vowed he would lead the march on Nairobi’s downtown Uhuru Park, which was ringed by police. Though Odinga drove through town, neither he nor any other opposition member made it to the park.
Protesters’ fervor was dampened by rain across much of the country, and by the response of police.
In Kisumu and Eldoret, thousands of rowdy young men massed, first marching peacefully. As the crowds grew, police lobbed tear gas canisters, forcing them disperse. They regrouped, and police then fired live rounds, clearing the streets.
“The police are overreacting. People are just demanding their rights,” said one of the wounded, 26-year-old Dominic Okoth, in Kisumu, where burning tires and sent columns of acrid smoke into the air.
When police opened fire in Eldoret, a crowd of about 4,000 fled. Workers at a gas station crouched under cars, their heads in their hands. Women fled with one shoe on.
On one makeshift roadblock on the outskirts of Eldoret, a dead dog was draped over a pile of rocks with a sign saying “Kibaki Death.”
Thirteen nations, including the United States and Britain, increased pressure on politicians to find a solution, threatening Wednesday to cut aid to the government “if the commitment of the government of Kenya to good governance, democracy, the rule of law and human rights weakens.”
Foreign and local election observers have said the vote count in the election was deeply flawed. Although the electoral chief pronounced Kibaki the victor, he later said he had been pressured to do so and did not know who won.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
