Police use force to halt Kenyan protesters

updated 6:00 p.m. ET Jan. 3, 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya - Police used tear gas, water cannons and batons Thursday to block thousands of people from protesting Kenya's disputed election amid a political deadlock between the president and his chief rival.

The U.S. and Europe pushed for reconciliation, but said a "made-in-Kenya solution" was needed to end the violence that has killed about 300 people and displaced some 100,000 since President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the Dec. 27 election.

But as the diplomats discussed unity, Kenya's slums burned.

"War is happening here," said 45-year-old Edwin Mukathia, who was among thousands of people who poured out of Nairobi's slums to heed opposition candidate Raila Odinga's call for a million-man march in the city's Uhuru Park.

But Mukathia and the others were kept at bay by riot police, who choked off the roads and fired live bullets over their heads. The opposition canceled the march but said they would hold it Friday, setting the stage for another day of upheaval stretching from the capital to the coast to the western highlands.

'People here are dying'
The conflict has brought condemnation from diplomats across the globe as one of Africa's top tourist draws and most stable democracies descends into chaos.

The images of burning churches, machete-wielding gangs and looters making off with fuel are common in a region encompassing Somalia and Sudan, but unusual for Kenya.

Smoke from burning tires and debris rose from barricaded streets, around Nairobi's huge slums, where hundreds of thousands of Odinga's supporters live, as well as on main roads leading into suburbs that are home to upper class Kenyans and expatriates.

In Mathare slum, rival groups of men hurled rocks at each other. Black smoke billowed from a burning gas station, and several charred cars sat on roads. The corpse of at least one man lay face down on a muddy path, and a wailing wife pulled her battered husband from the dark waters of the Nairobi River, where he had been dumped and left for dead.

"There is no food, there is no water," said Peter Ochieng, 37, who lives in Kibera slum, home to tens of thousands of opposition supporters. "People here are dying."

Disputes trigger violence, pit tribes
The election dispute has degenerated into violence pitting Kibaki's influential Kikuyus against Odinga's Luos and other tribes.

Kenya's electoral commission said Kibaki had won the Dec. 27 election, but Odinga alleged the vote was rigged. Foreign observers have questioned the vote count, as has the chief of Kenya's electoral commission.

On Thursday, Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent probe.

"Because of the perception that the presidential results were rigged, it is necessary ... that a proper tally of the valid certificates returned and confirmed should be undertaken immediately" by an independent body, he said.

Wako did not elaborate or say whether an independent body would include foreign observers, and it was unclear whether he had Kibaki's backing or had made the statement independently.

Wako, who was appointed to the lifetime post by former President Daniel arap Moi, has been seen as close to Kibaki. The decision to launch an independent probe was a surprise and could reflect the seriousness of the vote-rigging allegations.

But the government has a long history of appointing independent commissions to investigate wrongdoing, only to have them take years and end with reports that are never released and have no practical effects.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua told The Associated Press he had "no problem" with Wako's call. But Odinga's spokesman, Salim Lone, rejected it, saying his party had "no faith in any government institution."

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