NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s opposition leader vowed to go ahead with a “million man” protest rally today that many fear could worsen a wave of political and ethnic violence that humanitarian groups say already has killed more than 300 people and displaced 100,000.
Though much of Nairobi was quiet Wednesday, shots rang out in the city’s sprawling Mathare slum, where police escorted terrified families to safety as fire raged through shacks.
“All you do here is come to pick up bodies,” Boniface Shikami, a bystander, shouted at police.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga claims President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election in Dec. 27 voting was a sham, and his massive rally in Nairobi could bring hundreds of thousands of supporters and their rivals onto the capital’s streets.
The government has banned the march, setting the stage for clashes between security forces and Odinga’s supporters.
Odinga said Wednesday that his peaceful rally was meant “to communicate to our people — to inform them where we are coming from, where we are and where we want to go.”
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by phone Wednesday with Odinga and had a call scheduled with Kibaki to ask the pair to resolve their differences peacefully, the State Department said. Spokesman Sean McCormack declined to say whether the U.S. recognized Kibaki’s victory but said Washington had “concerns” about accusations of electoral malfeasance that must be addressed within the country’s legal system.
The independent Kenya Human Rights Commission and the International Federation for Human Rights said in a joint statement that more than 300 people had been killed since the voting. The Norwegian Refugee Council estimated more than 100,000 people have been displaced. About 5,400 people also fled to neighboring Uganda, and several hundred fled to Tanzania.
McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.
