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Kenya opposition to start boycotts

A man is overcome by tear gas after Kenyan police charged through Nairobi's Kibera slum wielding batons and firing tear gas on Thursday. PHOTO: AFP

Their protests weakened by a harsh police crackdown and weary supporters, Kenya's embattled opposition said yesterday they would turn to economic boycotts and strikes to keep up pressure against President Mwai Kibaki, whom they accuse of rigging the country's recent election.

Opposition spokesman Salim Lone vowed a third and final day of rowdy rallies, in which at least 10 people have died, would continue nationwide yesterday.

Next, he said, the opposition would urge consumers "boycott companies owned by hard-liners who are around Mr Kibaki" and work with unions "to organize strikes in selected industries." He declined to give details.

Kenya exploded in violence after the Dec. 27 election. Odinga insists Kibaki stole the vote and international observers as well as the electoral chief have question the results.

Furious over the alleged vote rigging, Odinga's supporters rose up, burning homes, clashing with police and exposing long-simmering ethnic tensions.

More than 600 people have been killed since then, the worst violence since a failed 1982 coup attempt.

Lone also said opposition leader Raila Odinga was open for dialogue.

"We are completely ready to negotiate in good faith. We want peace in the country," Lone said. "Our people are suffering."

Kibaki's government has made similar statements, but envoys from the US and the African Union have failed to resolve the crisis or even bring Odinga and Kibaki together for talks.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had been expected on Tuesday, but he fell ill and called off his trip. Two other members of his mediation team arrived late on Thursday, though. They included former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and Graca Machel, wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela, said Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula.

Odinga had called for three days of rallies against Kibaki to start on Wednesday. On Thursday, police cracked down fiercely as protests lost steam, firing tear gas at a hospital in the western town of Eldoret and bullets elsewhere at seething, rock-throwing opposition supporters.

Five people were killed on Wednesday and another five died on Thursday, most from gunshot wounds.

In Kisumu, an opposition stronghold 300km from Nairobi, a morgue attendant said two bodies with bullet wounds were brought in on Thursday, including a woman who witnesses said was shot by a bullet that pierced the corrugated iron wall of her home as she ate lunch. They showed a reporter the bullet hole.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said police shot and killed two "criminal" protesters elsewhere on Thursday. He said one was in a group of about 50 young men who blocked a convoy of 42 petroleum tankers on the highway to neighboring Uganda and tried to set them ablaze. The other killed was in "a group of criminals" who fired at police in Nairobi's Mathare slum, Kiraithe said.

Another man, shot through the neck, died in front of a reporter at Nairobi's Masaba Hospital. No one knew his name.

``When will this end?'' asked Alfrank Okoth as he nursed a bullet wound to the chest at the hospital. The 28-year-old said he was shot by police at the gate of his house in Nairobi's biggest slum, Kibera.

Three others with bullet wounds were admitted, including a pastor, Francis Ivayo. He said he was shielding a group of children near his church in Kibera when police fired from a train going through the slum, hitting him in the lower back.

Opposition leader Odinga accused the police of being "on a killing spree." Kiraithe denied that.
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