Kenya rally called off amid mayhem

Kenya's opposition party has called off Thursday's banned public rally and urged its supporters to go home, but hopes to stage another one next week.

Supporters and leaders of Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement
had been blocked from getting to the rally in Nairobi's city center by
government forces who used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the
crowds.

"We are a peaceful people who do not want violence,"
William Ruto, a top official with presidential candidate Raila Odinga's
party told The Associated Press.

"That is why we are peacefully dispersing now."

Opposition leader Odinga called the meeting despite a government ban on
such gatherings, having been forced to abandon his first attempt on
Monday soon after the onset of the conflict.

Despite this
week's two failed gatherings, the ODM now hopes to hold one next
Tuesday to protest the result of the elections, in which President Mwai
Kibaki controversially retained power.

"All Kenyans are
invited to Uhuru Park," a statement on Odinga's campaign Web site had
said ahead of the rally, as party officials expected at least a million
people to attend.

The crowds were gathering as Archbishop
Desmond Tutu began meeting with opposition officials, including Odinga,
in an effort to mediate the election dispute.

"We've come to
express our solidarity with the people of Kenya to express our sympathy
at the carnage that has happened, hoping that we will be able to
encourage the leadership to take action that would stop that carnage," Tutu said.

It was not immediately clear if the Nobel laureate would also talk
with Kibaki's party. A government spokesman said a meeting could be
arranged with Tutu if it would help with the process.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan attorney general is calling for a recount and an independent investigation into the country's election.

Amos Wako also wants a government of national unity, according to a statement from his office on Thursday.

Odinga's supporters had slowly made their way to Uhuru Park for the rally, but were met by government security forces.

"There are fewer protesters here than there are guards," journalist
David McKenzie said from the Nairobi slum of Kibera before the rally
was canceled.

"But earlier, tear gas was thrown at them, and
then there were running battles up and down the street ... with water
cannon spraying and dispersing the people here."

There were also
reports of government troops firing live rounds above protesters'
heads, as the smoke of tires being burned in protest began to choke the
air over the capital. Flames also could be seen leaping from some of
the shacks that fill the capital's slums.

As many as 75,000 people have been internally displaced by the violence, the government said on Tuesday.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday to push back a crowd
of several hundred people from the Kibera slum holding branches and
white flags symbolizing peace. Some burned an effigy of Kibaki and
waved placards denouncing him as the devil."Without Raila there will be no peace," said one of the protesters, 22-year-old Edward Muli.

Kenya's main newspapers ran front-page banners urging people to "save our beloved country."

"It's
got to stop," U.S. Ambassador Michael E. Ranneberger said of the
violence, speaking on Kenyan Television News. Kibaki "needs to speak
out and Odinga needs to speak out and bring this thing to an end."

Though
both sides say they are ready to talk, the Odinga and Kibaki camps have
mostly traded accusations that the other is fueling ethnic violence.
Odinga says he will not meet with Kibaki unless the latter concedes he
lost the presidency, something Kibaki is unlikely to do.

In
a bid to help ease the crisis, South African Nobel peace laureate
Desmond Tutu flew to Nairobi and met Odinga. Speaking to reporters
afterward, he said Odinga was ready for "the possibility of mediation."

Tutu gave no
details but said he hoped to meet Kibaki as well. Government spokesman
Alfred Mutua said Kibaki had no plans yet for such a meeting.

Neighboring
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni's office said he had spoken to the
two rivals, also trying to end the unrest. But Museveni also issued a
statement congratulating Kibaki for being re-elected.

The
Kenya Human Rights Commission urged Kibaki to agree to an independent
review of the disputed ballot count, saying in a statement: "Kenya will
not survive this moment unless our leaders act like statesmen."

Confusion has surrounded the disputed count.
The head of the country's electoral commission, Samuel Kivuitu, said he
was pressured by both sides to announce the results quickly. The
Nairobi newspaper The Standard quoted Kivuitu on Wednesday as saying:
"I do not know whether Kibaki won the election."

The
bitter dispute has shaken Kenya's image as an tourist-friendly oasis of
stability in a region that includes war-ravaged Somalia and Sudan.

Smoke
from burning tires and debris rose from barricaded streets Thursday,
not just around the city's huge slums where hundreds of thousands of
Odinga's supporters live, but on main roads leading into suburbs home
to upper class Kenyans and expatriates.

In
the Mathare slum, rival groups of angry men hurled rocks at each other.
Black smoke billowed from a burning gas station, and several charred
cars sat along roadside. The corpse of at least one dead man lay face
down on a muddy path, and a wailing wife pulled her battered husband
from the dark waters of the Nairobi River, where he had been dumped and
left for dead.

Police
Chief Mark Mwara called the protesters "hooligans" and accused them of
attacking petrol stations and supermarkets. Some shops around the city
were set on fire.Uhuru Park, where protesters were expected to
converge in the city center, was empty, surrounded by truckloads of
riot police in red berets.

Government
spokesman Mutua said clashes had only affected about 3 percent of the
country's 34 million people. "Kenya is not burning and not (in) the
throes of any division," he said, adding that security forces had
arrested 500 people since skirmishes began.

Vice President Moody Awori said on a local
television station that the unrest was costing the country $31 million
daily. Uganda says many gas stations there have shut down because of
shortages of fuel, most of which is imported by road from Kenya's
Indian Ocean coast.

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 nationwide since the Dec. 27 vote.

The
Norwegian Refugee Council estimated more than 100,000 people have been
displaced. Around 5,400 people have fled to neighboring Uganda, said
Musa Ecweru, that country's disaster preparedness minister. Several
hundred people also have fled to Tanzania, officials there said.