Kenya govt ready for new vote if ruled by court

Opposition protests in Kenya faltered on Friday and the government said it was ready to accept a court-ordered re-run of an election whose disputed result unleashed a wave of violence.

The United Nations said, however, that it was scrambling to get food to 100,000 terrified people facing starvation in western Kenya after they fled the violence, which included the burning to death of 30 people in a church.

Protesters, exhausted after hours of street battles with police on Thursday, failed to march on central Nairobi again on Friday.

"We're tired, we're not going to march," said Samuel Muhati, a resident of the Mathare slum. "Let the fighting stop."

As mediation efforts picked up pace, the government said it was ready for a re-run of the disputed December 27 vote, but only if ordered by a court.

"We would accept even another election as long as the constitution is followed. If the courts decide it, we would accept that," said Alfred Mutua, spokesman for President Mwai Kibaki.

Raila Odinga's opposition Orange Democratic Party (ODM) charges that Kibaki stole the vote to lead east Africa's biggest economy. It says the courts are packed with Kibaki allies and legal appeals could take years.

At least 300 people have died in the wave of killings that followed Kibaki's disputed victory.

Kenya's opposition party called for a new presidential election to
settle a dispute over the vote that has sparked days of deadly riots,
and police hurled tear gas to scatter more than 1,000 protesters in the
coastal city of Mombasa Friday.

There was no immediate comment on the call for a new vote from the
government of President Mwai Kibaki, who is unlikely to accept such a
demand.

The U.S. and Europe were among those pushing for reconciliation, but
said a "made-in-Kenya solution" is needed to end the violence that has
killed 300 people and displaced 100,000 in what was once lauded as
among the most stable democracies in Africa.

The upheaval has spread from the capital to the coast and the
western highlands. In Mombasa, a city heavily dependent on tourism,
police scattered 1,500 protesters who were shouting "Kibaki has stolen
our vote!" There were no immediate reports of injuries.

In Nairobi, supporters of opposition candidate Raila Odinga vowed
that street protests that shook Nairobi a day earlier would continue
Friday, but by midday there no signs of a mass protest brewing. Small
groups of protesters were gathering on street corners in the slums,
though, saying they were preparing for a rally.

Kenya's
opposition called for a new presidential election to settle a dispute
that has sparked deadly riots from the capital to the coast, but a
government spokesman said Friday a new vote could come on only on
orders from the highest court.

"As long as the due process of law is followed and the constitution
is respected the president will obey," government spokesman Alfred
Mutua told The Associated Press. When asked if the constitution allowed
for a re-run, he said: "I doubt it."

Kenya's Supreme Court, largely appointed by President Mwai Kibaki, has so far not entered the dispute over the Dec. 27 vote.

In Mombasa,
a coastal city heavily dependent on tourism, police used tear gas to
scatter 1,500 protesters who were shouting "Kibaki has stolen our
vote!" There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Anyang Nyongo, secretary general of the Orange Democratic Movement,
said the country should start preparing "for a new election of the
president."

"This is about a democracy and justice," Nyongo told
The Associated Press. "We shall continue to defend and promote the
right of Kenyans so that the democratic process should be fulfilled."

Kenya's electoral commission said President Mwai Kibaki had won the
December 27 vote, but opposition leader Raila Odinga alleged the vote
was rigged and international observations said it was flawed.

At
least 300 people have been killed and as many as 75,000 people
internally displaced in the subsequent post-election violence, the
government said.

The International Red Cross Friday said it was
upping its effort to the region in comments reported by AP. Anna
Schaaf, spokeswoman for the Geneva-based group, said 15 staff are now
en route to the country to assess how to give the Kenyan Red Cross
enough provisions to sustain at least 100,000 people with basics for
several weeks.

On Thursday, Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent probe of the counting.

"The level and nature of the violent protest has never before been
witnessed in our country and is quickly degenerating into a catastrophe
of unimaginable proportions," Wako said of the country's turmoil.

And, a day after the ODM was forced to cancel a public rally in Nairobi
when government forces attacked its supporters with tear gas and water
cannon, another gathering has been planned in Ohuru Park.

However, early reports indicated that the city was generally calm Friday.

But in Kibera, the country's largest slum, shops remained shut and small groups of protesters began to gather.

"We are trying to go to Uhuru Park today," said Joshua Okoth, standing
with a group of young men by the smoking remains of a former food
market.

The downtown park is a traditional meeting place for political
activists but is currently flooded with riot police, who are also
patrolling the main roads into Nairobi from the slums.

"Let people die and then there will be a change," said Okoth.

Reports of violence, looting and fires were sporadic in Nairobi's
sprawling slums, including Kibera, from which residents had left en
masse to Uhuru Park.

Video from Nairobi's outskirts showed
streets littered with broken glass, overturned Coca-Cola crates and, in
some places, fires. One man carried a sign that read: "Shame on you
Kibaki you raped our democracy."

Meanwhile, children's bodies
piled up in a Nairobi morgue, churches burned and police on horseback
chased pedestrians through the streets.

"What we have just seen
defies description," opposition leader Raila Odinga told journalists
after visiting one Nairobi morgue Thursday. "We can only describe it as
genocide on a grand scale."

Images provided to CNN by I-Reporter
Duncan Musicha Waswa showed riot police on horseback chasing citizens
on Nairobi's Bunyala Road. Those going about their daily business
raised their hands to avoid the wrath of police, Waswa told CNN.

The rally was banned by Kenya's government, which had prohibited political gatherings before the December 27 elections.

Earlier this week, the ODM posted on its Web site a call for Kibaki to protect all Kenyans.

At least 300 people have been killed and as many as 75,000 people
internally displaced in the post-election violence, the government said.

Kibaki narrowly won re-election with 51.3 percent of the vote, while
Odinga garnered 48.7 percent, the country's election commission
announced Sunday.

 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu met with Odinga and other opposition
officials Thursday and was scheduled to meet with Kibaki Friday
morning, according to the African Council of Churches.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also has sent diplomat Jendayi Frazer, who was to arrive in Kenya on Friday and meet with Kibaki, Odinga and other political leaders, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.