Deadly clashes in Kenya

1/23

In the Kibera slum of Nairobi, protesters turn over a section of railroad tracks after breaking the ties. Some of the male residents had spent the day damaging the tracks that lead from Nairobi to Uganda. They said they didn’t want President Kibaki to use the railroad to transport Ugandan troops to fight against them. Police responded by opening fire and killing at least six people in one of the bloodiest days of the ongoing protests. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

2/23

A man lies bloodied in the street seconds after being shot by police in the neck and back. Police opened fire on protesters in the Kibera slum, killing at least six people and wounding at least 10. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

3/23

A group of men carry a severely injured man who was shot in the neck and back by police in Kibera. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

4/23

Residents mourn over the bodies of a woman and a man who were among the dead after police opened fire on protesters. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

5/23

People run from the corner where the police shooting took place in Kibera. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

6/23

Hundreds of men worked together to destroy the railroad tracks, which run through Kibera slum in Nairobi and west to the Ugandan border. Protesters were calling the crossing the Odinga Highway, in support of opposition leader Raila Odinga, and said they would put houses on the land. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

7/23

A Kenyan protester launches a rock at police in the Kibera neighborhood of Nairobi, where clashes between supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga and police went on for most of the day. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

8/23

Police with clubs surround a man in the Kibera neighborhood, where they had gone in search of agitators. He was released after being roughed up. On the second day of a nationwide protest rally against President Mwai Kibaki’s administration, violence broke out in the slums of Nairobi and in the downtown business district. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

9/23

Police slap a man in the Kibera district. He was released after being beaten. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

10/23

A man severley beaten in ethnic violence in the Mathare district of Nairobi is helped by Red Cross workers before being taken to the hospital. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

11/23

A man beaten on the streets of downtown Nairobi is close to death. Witnesses said the attack was ethnically based and not carried out by police. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

12/23

Riot police use tear gas and bullets to disperse people in the Kibera slum. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

13/23

Kenyan riot police stand ready in Nairobi. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

14/23

Soldiers storm the streets in a Mathare slum to break up the ethnic fighting that has heated up in the wake of post-election tension. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

15/23

Army soldiers forcefully detain a man who was walking through the opposition-held neighborhood of Mathare. He was later released after being beaten. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

16/23

Tear gas fills the air as women scramble to pick up their goods to avoid being beaten by riot police. Police fired the gas and bullets to disperse people in downtown Nairobi, where a rally of opposition supporters was not allowed to take place. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

17/23

People flee downtown Nairobi as riot police chase protesters from the streets. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

18/23

Heavily armed riot police sweep the city amid opposition leader Raila Odinga’s vow to lead a rally in downtown Nairobi, despite a ban on such protests. Charges that he was robbed of the presidency in last month’s election opposite President Mwai Kibaki have led to growing unrest and violence. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

19/23

A burning road block keeps police from passing a road in the Kibera slum where an earlier shooting incident left one person dead. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

20/23

Riot police force a frightened woman and others out of downtown Nairobi in what authorities say was an effort to prevent looting. As businesses quickly shut down, thousands of workers streamed out of their buildings. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

21/23

Armed with machetes and rocks, Odinga supporters face off with their opponents before being chased away by the army. The heavy police and military presence throughout the city also broke up ethnic fighting in the slums. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

22/23

Soldiers storm streets in the Mathare slum to break up ethnic fighting between the Odinga and Kibaki camps. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

23/23

With post-election tension worsening, police fired live rounds into the air to scare off protesters in downtown Nairobi. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

By Edmund Sanders

Jan. 19, 2008 12 AM PT

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

NAIROBI, KENYA —

Clashes between police and protesters in several cities Friday resulted in as many as 12 deaths, bringing the toll to nearly two dozen in three days of “mass action,” witnesses and officials said.

The deadliest skirmishes occurred in the Nairobi slum of Kibera, where angry youths tore up railway lines that run through the restive district, connecting the Kenyan coastline to Uganda.

Protesters dubbed the broken transport line the “Odinga Highway,” in honor of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who ran against President Mwai Kibaki in the Dec. 27 election. Violence has rocked the East African country since Kibaki was declared the winner amid allegations of widespread fraud. More than 600 people have died in postelection clashes.

Police, who have been criticized for their heavy-handed response to the protests, swarmed into the rain-soaked Kibera slum in the late afternoon, firing tear gas and live ammunition.

Witnesses said four to seven people were killed, including a teenage girl, apparently a bystander.

“They were just firing indiscriminately and lobbing tear gas at any people in their way,” said John Lallo, 62, an unemployed resident of Kibera. “I can’t even say that this is unusual. They use force like that every time there is a crisis.”

In the coastal city of Mombasa, police battled scores of Muslim protesters as they exited a mosque after Friday prayers. Four people reportedly were shot, one fatally.

Odinga and human rights groups are calling for an investigation of alleged police brutality.

Government officials defended the police, saying they were not dealing with peaceful marchers, but with angry young men who at times have stoned them, burned homes and looted businesses.

“We are dealing with a mob psychology,” said Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe.

The government has banned demonstrations and prohibited television broadcasters from airing live coverage of the violence.

Police also are dealing with tribal violence set off by the election dispute.

In southern Kenya, four people from Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe were killed Friday with poisoned arrows and machetes by members of a rival Maasai tribe near the city of Narok, a local official told Reuters news agency.

Friday marked the official end of the nationwide protests called by opposition forces. Internationally mediated peace talks are scheduled to start Tuesday, when former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan arrives in Nairobi.

edmund.sanders@latimes.com

Deadly clashes in Kenya

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