KENYA:Protesters battled police armed with batons, tear-gas and live rounds for a second day yesterday as opposition leaders in Kenya said they were planning an economic boycott to force President Mwai Kibaki to back down over disputed elections.
By nightfall, a steady trickle of casualties with gunshot wounds was making its way out of Kibera, Africa's biggest slum, after waves of riot police stormed its narrow alleys. The country is braced for a third day of protests today as opposition supporters try to force a rerun of December's vote. Opposition leaders accused police of heavy-handed tactics and claimed that seven people had been shot dead.
Salim Lone, a spokesman for opposition leader Raila Odinga, said today's protest would be the last. They would be followed by an economic campaign against government targets and calls for strike action. "It's an evolving set of tactics to try to force the government into negotiations," said Mr Lone.
"We know that there are those in the Kibaki group, the elite around him, who are more moderate and know that this crisis can really damage their interests and will want him to back down."
Targets include Citi Hoppa buses, owned by a close associate of John Michuki, the hardline minister for roads, Brookside Dairy, owned by Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the country's first president, and Equity Bank.
Protesters have so far failed to break through police lines and have largely been penned back in slum areas.
About 600 people have died and more than 250,000 forced to flee their homes since President Kibaki was sworn in for a second term almost three weeks ago.
Kenya's rapid plunge into instability has scared off tourists and investors who viewed the country as one of the better places to do business in Africa.
Yesterday the Commonwealth added its voice to criticism of election results. Its observers concluded that discrepancies in the tallying process called the result into question.
So far President Kibaki has refused to give ground to Mr Odinga, insisting the opposition should use the courts if they believe they have been cheated.Mediation efforts have failed to bring the two sides together.
Meanwhile, Mr Odinga accused police of shooting dead seven people during peaceful demonstrations.
"Under the orders of the government, police are executing innocent citizens at will while the world talks about dialogue," he said.
"How do you dialogue with killers?" A police spokesman, however, insisted that the opposition was exaggerating the number and officers had acted with restraint.
Police formed a human barrier around Kibera slum yesterday, home to about one million people, preventing opposition supporters making their way to Uhuru Park in the centre of Nairobi, where their leaders want to hold a mass rally.
At first officers were content to fire volleys of tear-gas and live rounds overhead. But with the crowds growing into a boisterous mob, about 150 officers charged into the slum using their batons to clear a path. Youths were dragged to the ground, kicked and beaten. Casualties began drifting out as the sun began to set. Three men lay in the back of a pick-up van on their way to hospital.
A woman who had been shot in the back was helped to the main road and into a car. And the body of a man, drenched in blood from a bullet wound, was carried out by a dozen young men who had to brave clouds of tear-gas fired by trigger happy police officers. Similar scenes were reported in the western opposition stronghold of Kisumu.