KENYA: Protesters die as Kenyan opposition challenges presidential poll results

Record ID: 361070

  • Title: KENYA: Protesters die as Kenyan opposition challenges presidential poll results
  • Date: 31st December 2007
  • Summary: (BN10) NAIROBI, KENYA (DECEMBER 31, 2007) (REUTERS) ORANGE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (ODM) OFFICIALS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ODM LEADER, RAILA ODINGA, SAYING: "We are calling our people to conduct themselves constitutionally and we are therefore going to call for mass action countrywide, peaceful mass action, peaceful demonstrations."
  • Embargoed: 15th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA92Z5QFADBFMCP97C6TRE4C09Y
  • Story Text: Riots flare and scores die in Kenya as opposition leader Raila Odinga calls for mass peaceful action to protest against an alleged fraudulent election result favouring incumbent President Mwai Kibaki.
    Scores of people had died by Monday (December 31) as Kenyan police fought opposition protesters after President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner in a disputed election.
    At least 124 people had been killed in the turmoil, a local television station reported.
    Police beat protesters and flushed looters out of buildings in Nairobi's Kibera slum, which is within opposition leader Raila Odinga's constituency.
    Kenyan opposition supporters burned houses in Nairobi's Korogocho slum on Monday (December 31) as police fired tear tear gas and shots in the air to disperse the crowd.
    Much of the fighting pitched Luos, who support opposition leader Raila Odinga, against Kibaki's ethnic Kikuyu group.
    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."
    Kibaki was sworn into office for a second five-year term shortly after the electoral commission declared him the victor on Sunday (December 30) in a poll denounced as fraudulent by Odinga and questioned by international and Kenyan observers.
    Having led every opinion poll bar one since September, then taken a strong lead in early results, Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) was dismayed to see Kibaki take a win.
    Odinga said he will not be intimidated "by the prospects of arrest prosecution or detention."

    "Democracy is expensive," he said, adding "We are prepared to pay the ultimate price to liberate this country from the shackles of a cabal of dictators who have no respect or regard for the rights of the people of this country."
    Odinga called for a peaceful, mass demonstration at Nairobi's Uhuru park on January 3 to protest against a disputed election result which handed incumbent President Mwai Kibaki victory.
    He had previously called on Kenyans to gather for his alternative inauguration in Uhuru park on Monday (December 31), but police banned the meeting.
    Some of the worst violence flared in Kisumu, the opposition's western heartland.
    About 33 people were being treated for gunshot wounds on Monday at the Nyanza Provincial Hospital in Kisumu.

    "President Kibaki, tell your officers to go back and be silent in their barracks, because we can't afford to see people being killed indiscriminately. We are very peaceful people, you are the one bringing all these problems Kibaki," said Isaiah Opiyo, a Kisumu resident.
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