KENYA: Riots in Nairobi as opposition supporters protest against election results

Record ID: 320260

  • Title: KENYA: Riots in Nairobi as opposition supporters protest against election results
  • Date: 31st December 2007
  • Summary: (W2) NAIROBI, KENYA (DECEMBER 31, 2007) (REUTERS) PEOPLE WALKING AS SMOKE RISES BEHIND HOUSES IN KOROGOCHO SLUM VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING AS OTHERS CARRY STONES VARIOUS OF CROWD CHANTING "(PRESIDENT) KIBAKI MUST GO, KIVUITU MUST GO" PEOPLE CARRYING MACHETES, STICKS AND STONES CHANTING "NO PEACE!" (SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) LAWRENCE OCHIENG, KOROGOCHO RESIDENT, SAYING: "We are fighting Kikuyu gangs and we have to kill them all. We have already killed two people" MAN THROWS STONE INTO SHACK VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING AS SMOKE RISES FROM SHACKS (SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) UNIDENTIFIED NAIROBI RESIDENT SAYING: "We are ready to be rebels. We want guns. As (opposition leader) Raila (Odinga) is not going to be given the presidency, we are going to be rebels in Kenya and we will overthrow Kibaki" YOUTH THROWING STONES AND KICKING GATE PEOPLE CUTTING DOWN SUGAR CANE (SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) UNIDENTIFIED NAIROBI RESIDENT SAYING: "We are eating their sugarcane because they have denied Odinga our votes" PEOPLE CHANTING "NO RAILA, NO PEACE" AS THEY BURN A PIECE OF CLOTH PEOPLE WALKING
  • Embargoed: 15th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7GI27XQFFFY01L39LZT1LTJAH
  • Story Text: Tension continues to rise in Nairobi as police disperse opposition supporters protesting against the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki.
    Kenyan opposition supporters burned houses in Nairobi's Korogocho slum on Monday (December 31) as police fired tear gas and also shots in the air to disperse the crowd.
    The rioters were protesting against a disputed election that handed President Mwai Kibaki a second term in office.
    They chanted the name of defeated opposition leader Raila Odinga demanding that he be declared President.
    Much of the fighting in many areas of Kenya pitched ethnic Luos, who support Odinga, against Kibaki's Kikuyu supporters.
    Lawrence Ochieng, a resident in Korgocho slum, said: "We are fighting Kikuyu gangs and we have to kill them all. We have already killed two people."
    Another resident said: "We are ready to be rebels, we want guns is Raila is not going to be given the presidency, we are going to be rebels in Kenya and we will overthrow Kibaki."
    Trouble was reported elsewhere around Nairobi and in western Kenya, which is an opposition stronghold. As details emerged of a night of violence, witnesses and local media said 21 bodies, most of them with gunshot wounds, were lying in a mortuary in the western Kenyan town of Kisumu.
    Kibaki was sworn into office for a second five-year term shortly after Kenya's electoral commission declared him the victor on Sunday (December 30) in a poll denounced as fraudulent by opposition challenger Raila Odinga and questioned by international and Kenyan observers.
    Political rival Odinga announced an alternative inauguration for Monday. The government has banned the event scheduled to be held at Nairobi's Uhuru Park and threatened to arrest anyone who attempts to attend it.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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