Kenyan police used teargas this morning to disperse youths in the coastal city of Mombasa who were heeding a call for nationwide protests against President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election, witness said.
In the western opposition stronghold of Kisumu, gangs of youths burned tyres in the streets and blocked roads.
In Nairobi, shopkeepers nailed up windows and riot police guarded streets, but rain and weariness with more than two weeks of unrest appeared to dampen the zeal for demonstrations called for midday (9am Irish time) but banned by police.
More than 600 people have died and 250,000 been left homeless in the turmoil since Kibaki was sworn in after a Dec. 27 vote that opposition leader Raila Odinga says was rigged.
In Mombasa, about 100 youths gathered in the centre of town, but were scattered by police firing gas cannisters. Witnesses said the protesters immediately tried to regroup.
"Our president Raila says we are going to demonstrate for three consecutive days, and that is what we are preparing to do, whatever the cost," protester Emmanuel Omondo said, in front of dozens of youths around burning tyres in a Kisumu outskirt.
Kenya's political crisis has fuelled a wave of violence, jeopardised its democratic credentials, angered donors, driven tourists away and hurt one of Africa's most promising economies.
Fuelling doubt over Kibaki's win - officially by 230,000 of 10 million votes cast - a senior US official said today it was impossible to know who won the presidency.
"We have done our own analysis. What it shows is that the result was extremely close and that whoever won probably won with no more than 100,000 votes at the most," Washington's ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, told the Daily Nation.