Opposition Calls Off Kenya Rally
CBNNews.com
January 3, 2008
CBNNews.com - An opposition rally for Thursday has been cancelled, according to a top official with Kenya's main opposition party.
Click on the video player to see preparaton to avoid the volatile protest rally in Kenya.
He called on supporters to go home after riot police fired tear gas and water cannons to beat back crowds of protesters.
"We are a peaceful people who do not want violence," said William Ruto, a top official with presidential candidate Raila Odinga's party. "That is why we are peacefully dispersing now."
Odinga had called the march to protest President Mwai Kibaki's re-election in the Dec. 27 vote, insisting the poll was a sham.
The political dispute has degenerated into ethnic violence nationwide pitting Kibaki's influential Kikuyus against Odinga's Luos and other tribes.
Odinga had said the rally was meant to be peaceful, but the government banned the march. Ruto said another rally was planned for Tuesday.
Though both sides say they are ready to talk, the Odinga and Kibaki camps have mostly traded accusations that the other is fueling ethnic violence.
Odinga says he will not meet with Kibaki unless the latter concedes he lost the presidency, something Kibaki is unlikely to do.
Leaders Hope to Ease the Crisis
In a bid to help ease the crisis, South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu flew to Nairobi and met Odinga. Tutu gave no details but said he hoped to meet Kibaki as well. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said Kibaki had no plans yet for such a meeting.
Neighboring Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni's office said he had spoken to the two rivals, also trying to end the unrest. But Museveni also issued a statement congratulating Kibaki for being re-elected.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission urged Kibaki to agree to an independent review of the disputed ballot count, saying in a statement: "Kenya will not survive this moment unless our leaders act like statesmen."
Confusion has surrounded the disputed count. The head of the country's electoral commission, Samuel Kivuitu, said he was pressured by both sides to announce the results quickly. The Nairobi newspaper The Standard quoted Kivuitu on Wednesday as saying: "I do not know whether Kibaki won the election."
The bitter dispute has shaken Kenya's image as an tourist-friendly oasis of stability in a region that includes war-ravaged Somalia and Sudan.
Government spokesman Mutua said clashes had only affected about 3 percent of the country's 34 million people. Security forces had arrested 500 people since skirmishes began, he added.
The independent Kenya Human Rights Commission and the International Federation for Human Rights said in a joint statement that more than 300 people had been killed nationwide since the Dec. 27 vote.
The Norwegian Refugee Council estimated more than 100,000 people have been displaced. Around 5,400 people have fled to neighboring Uganda, said Musa Ecweru, that country's disaster preparedness minister. Several hundred people also have fled to Tanzania, officials there said.
Source: The Associated Press
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