Police, crowds clash in Nairobi

Police early today clashed with opposition protesters who were determined to stage a banned “million-man march” here in the capital to protest President Mwai Kibaki’s victory in an election they say was rigged.

Police fired tear gas and a water cannon as thousands of protesters at a roundabout west of the city center defied an order to disperse. They marched toward the site of the banned gathering, Uhuru Park, where truckloads of paramilitary police had arrived to set up a blockade. The roundabout skirmish could usher in a day of chaos, as opposition leaders refused to call off the rally.

Kenyan newspapers today begged Kibaki and his rival, Raila Odinga, leader of the Orange Democratic Movement, to step back from the brink. “Save our beloved country,” said identical banner headlines in two daily newspapers, Daily Nation and The Standard.

Opposition protesters, mainly from the Luo tribe, have unleashed days of fierce tribal violence against members of the dominant Kikuyu tribe, which supported Kibaki in last week’s election. Tribal fighting with machetes, rocks and clubs has broken out in Kenya’s slums and other parts of the country.

The planned march comes amid intense international pressure on Kibaki, who was sworn in to a new five-year term Sunday, and Odinga to reach a political accommodation.

With the post-election death toll edging toward 300, the international community has called on both sides to restrain their supporters.

Kenya had been seen as a beacon of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, until last week’s vote. With elections due this year in Ghana, Zimbabwe and Angola, the message Kibaki sends about democracy is seen as crucial.

John Kufuor, Ghana’s president and the chairman of the African Union, was to arrive in Nairobi today to meet both Kibaki and Odinga. On Wednesday, he urged both sides to restrain their supporters.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband also issued a statement Wednesday calling for restraint and intense political dialogue.

But Kibaki and Odinga remain stalemated: Kibaki insists that the election was fair and demands that Odinga accept the results; Odinga demands that Kibaki admit he is not the legitimate president or at least accept international mediation.

Both have refused to discuss a power-sharing deal, seen by the international community as the only speedy way forward to avoid and a slide into more entrenched tribal killing. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday suggested the possibility of a government of national unity.

Anyang Nyongo, secretary-general of the Orange Democratic Movement, told reporters Wednesday that there could be no peace without justice, a comment that echoes the chants in the streets of the party’s supporters: “No Raila, no peace!”

“The mass action is to let it be known that people want peaceful mass action to call for justice, which shall be a necessary condition for us to get on with our lives,” he said.

Interviewed by the BBC, Odinga was more blunt on why he would not call off the rally:

“I refuse to be asked to give the Kenyan people an anesthetic so they can be raped.”

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robyn.dixon@latimes.com