Police use force to halt Kenyan protesters

Preparing for discourse
As attempts at mediating the crisis gained momentum, Kibaki said he was willing to hold talks though he was vague on who he would talk to.

"I am ready to have dialogue with concerned parties once the nation is calm and the political temperatures are lowered enough for constructive and productive engagement," Kibaki said.

South African Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu flew to Nairobi and met Odinga, saying afterward that the opposition candidate was ready for "the possibility of mediation." Tutu gave no details but said he hoped to meet Kibaki as well.

Mutua said Kibaki had no plans yet for such a meeting and that Kenya had no need for mediators.

"We are not in a civil war," he said.

The State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made three telephone calls Thursday to discuss developments in Kenya: one to Kibaki, one to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and one to the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger.

The State Department said Rice and Solana agreed on the need for political reconciliation but neither had specifically endorsed the formation of coalition or a government of national unity.

"We're not going to be prescriptive here," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "They do need to come together, they need to broker some political solution to the political crisis," he added. "Fundamentally, this needs to be a 'made-in-Kenya' solution."

Slums plunge into chaos
Despite diplomatic talk of reconciliation, Kenya's slums were embroiled in violence. In Kibera, two churches were set on fire and burnt-out cars blocked roads.

"Politics has nothing to do with God," said 22-year-old Isaac Oronga, as he watched the fire consume the Lutheran church where he was baptized and where his parents were married.

Police pushed back several hundred people from Kibera holding branches and white flags symbolizing peace. Some burned an effigy of Kibaki and waved placards denouncing him as the devil.

"Without Raila, there will be no peace," said protester Edward Muli, 22.

Hundreds of young men marched in the coastal resort of Mombasa but were quickly repulsed by security forces. Police shot one protester in the head and he was taken to a hospital, said witness Moses Baya.

Odinga toured Nairobi's city mortuary, where there were piles of bodies of babies, children, young men and women. Some were burned, while others had head wounds. Many did not have visible wounds. It was unclear when they had died, but opposition officials said some were killed Thursday.

"What we have just seen defies description," Odinga said after the visit. "We can only describe it as genocide on a grand scale."

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