It ended with a fiasco the demonstration organized by opposition leader Raila Odinga at Uhuru Park in the center of the capital Nairobi. "The demonstrators arrived from all sides, but the police cordoned off the park and does not bring anyone," referring to PeaceReporter AA by phone this morning, a Somali who prefers remain anonymous for security reasons. "There's police everywhere, but his supporters have already been dispersed with water cannon and tear gas rounds." So much so that the opposition leader, shortly after 14.00 local time, preferred to cancel the rally. In the city are deserted shops and offices, everywhere men of the security forces.
In view of the already planned accidents, Nairobi is now a ghost town. Few cars on the street, few people apart from the demonstrators. "Many shops are closed, others have been looted," says AA "You can also see selected departments of the army, it is they who are launching the heaviest charges against civilians. The situation is tense, but all in all better than anyone could have expected. " In the slum
tension remains high, "in Mathare and Kibera there were new clashes in the night", makes known to PeaceReporter SK, a Luo forced to leave their homes following threats received by the gang of young Kikuyu. "Tonight they came knocking at my door, I had to hide under the bed," he says. "Luckily my wife speaks fluent Kikuyu and convinced them to leave. The police managed to take me away from Mathare, I could not stay. My Kikuyu broken and my skin is very dark immediately identified me as a Luo. " The two main ethnic groups among the 40 that make up Kenya, Kikuyu Luo and accuse each other of genocide and ethnic cleansing and fight for days beside their supporters, President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga of the one part the other, more contested election protagonists in the history of the country.
Despite the openings of both political and pressures of the international community, including the two leaders is open war. Odinga did not want to give up the presidency in light of the fraud that characterized the elections last December 27, from which Kibaki was selected as winner by a margin of just over 200,000 votes. "The time is ripe for a meeting, people asked him," says SK Meanwhile, the growing number of appeals, including from the Attorney General of Kenya, to create an independent commission to investigate the conduct of elections.
The long wave of massacres that took place between the weekend and Saturday, in which at least 300 people have died in clashes between Kikuyu and Luo, seems to ebb, that pushed the government to claim that the accident would affect only 3 percent of the country. However, it remains a very high number of displaced persons, about 100,000 according to the latest count of the Red Cross, many of them without assistance. Even in Nairobi, the situation is not better: PeaceReporter sources reported that at least 400 families were camped out near the airport, under the protection of the army which has some bases in the area.
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