Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons yesterday to beat back surging crowds of Kenyan protesters heeding an opposition call for a "million-man" rally that many fear could worsen the violence that has already killed 300 people and displaced 100,000.
There was no sign yet, however, of the gigantic crowds many feared.
Instead, small groups of a few hundred people each streamed toward the capital from various directions, as police tried to choke them off at strategic spots.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga called the march to protest Kenyan 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.
On Wednesday, Odinga said the rally was meant to be peaceful. The government has banned it, though, and with security forces deployed in force, violence was likely to erupt if protesters followed the call en masse.
Truckloads of riot police in red berets armed with rifles and batons ringed the empty Uhuru Park in the city center where protesters were expected to converge.
On one main road, police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back a crowd of several hundred people from the Kibera slum holding branches and white flags symbolizing peace.
"Without Raila there will be no peace," said one of the protesters, 22-year-old Edward Muli.
Elsewhere, smoke from burning tires rose from the streets as gunshots rang out. Police Chief Mark Mwara called the protesters "hooligans" and accused them of attacking petrol stations and supermarkets.
Meanwhile, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni congratulated Kibaki for being re-elected, a government newspaper in Kampala reported. It said Museveni has talked with Kibaki and Odinga to reconcile them.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by telephone on Wednesday with Odinga and had a call scheduled with Kibaki to ask the pair to resolve their differences peacefully, the US State Department said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was