"Kill Us All": Opposition Supporters Take the Streets in Nairobi

Kenyan police fired tear gas and water cannon on Thursday at thousands of anti-government protesters chanting "Peace" and singing the national anthem as they tried to march to a banned rally.

Nairobi became a battleground as shots rang around, crowds ran to-and-fro, riot police thronged the streets and plumes of smoke rose from hot spots like the Kibera slum.

"This is dictatorship now," protester Julius Akech shouted, in the latest bout of unrest in a week of tribal and political violence in which more than 300 Kenyans have been killed.
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Thousands poured out of the pro-opposition Kibera slum and other shanty towns after dawn to head for Nairobi's Uhuru Park, or Freedom Park in Swahili, for the planned million-strong rally that Kibaki's government has banned.

When they were stopped by riot police, some protesters -- wearing white scarves, waving leaves and singing the national anthem -- sat in streets, blocking traffic.

Police used tear gas and water cannon. They also fired in the air as, in one case, the crowd kneeled, shouting "Kill us all."

Police are fighting running battles with chanting rioters pushing to access Nairobi’s Uhuru Park for a rally called by the Orange Democratic Movement.

A church has been torched in Kibera while a petrol station and five cars have been set ablaze along the city’s Juja road. Key highways into the central business district remain more or less closed as police battle protestors.