The Wall Street Journal-20080117-Politics -amp- Economics- Kenya Protests Test Government-s Resolve
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Politics & Economics: Kenya Protests Test Government's Resolve
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Government forces closed off this capital's business district yesterday after using tear gas against small groups of protesters, civilians and journalists on the first of what is expected to be several days of nationwide protests.
The opposition protests and the ruling administration's reaction are shaping up to be a major test of government resolve amid violence and a political standoff stemming from last month's presidential elections.
If protests continue and life in the capital remains disrupted, the opposition could stand to win concessions from the government. At the same time, a heavy-handed response by government officials could backfire, engendering more widespread dissatisfaction among Nairobi's residents.
The opposition Orange Democratic Movement said yesterday's guerrilla-protest tactics -- deploying small groups of demonstrators who scatter and reappear throughout the city to evade government forces -- will be its chief strategy over the next few days, in an attempt to force President Mwai Kibaki into talks.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has accused Mr. Kibaki of rigging the Dec. 27 presidential election, denounced the government for banning ODM rallies and vowed to continue peaceful attempts to protest.
Heavy rains damped the protests early in the morning, and the capital city remained calm. By afternoon, however, a small group of young men had gathered outside of the ODM compound in Nairobi, dancing and chanting, "No Raila, no peace!" and singing a lewd song about Mr. Kibaki's wife before a crush of television cameras.
"The government is imposing a state of siege on the country," Mr. Odinga told reporters, backed by four rows of ODM members in bright- orange plastic lawn chairs. "Nothing will stop us from mounting these rallies," he said.
Isolated standoffs in Nairobi have been tense but haven't yet triggered anything like the spasm of violence that occurred immediately after the vote in city slums and smaller towns around the country. At one point yesterday, about two dozen ODM supporters collected on a street in downtown Nairobi, standing idly in the rain and facing off with riot police in full body armor across the street.
Mr. Odinga arrived in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to greet them, but drove off shortly before the police started firing their tear-gas canisters. The crowd scattered, and the police chased them down the street. Nearby businessmen and women in suits scurried to safety, holding their sleeves or handkerchiefs over their mouths and watering eyes as tear-gas canisters popped around them.
Protesters attempted to reach Uhuru Park, a grassy meadow downtown that has become a symbolic destination for the opposition. But a solid wall of riot police armed with shields and batons blocked off each entrance. Across the street, local and foreign journalists who had gathered outside were blasted with tear gas several times.
By 4 p.m., most businesses had closed and civilians, urged by the police to clear the streets, were heading home.
After violence flared late last month, the city appeared to be getting back to normal more recently. That relative calm is under threat once again.
"We shut down the whole city. And we will tomorrow, and the day after," crowed Ahmed Hashi, an ODM spokesman at a hotel next to the park. "They'll lose billions of shillings." Shilling is the Kenyan currency.
Elsewhere across the country, police clashed with groups of young men in ODM strongholds like Mombasa, Eldoret and Kisumu, dispersing crowds with tear gas. Two people were shot dead by police in Kisumu, news reports indicated.
More than 600 people have been killed and about 250,000 displaced in violence since the Dec. 27 presidential elections, which the international community has condemned as flawed.
Recent attempts to resolve the dispute have been shot down by the Kibaki administration, which has said it doesn't need international parties meddling in its affairs. Mr. Odinga has said he can't sit down with Mr. Kibaki until he relinquishes the presidency.
The two parties met Tuesday in the first parliamentary session since the presidential elections, as they voted on their house speaker in a major test of political clout. ODM, with a majority of seats, saw its nominee appointed.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who had planned to fly in this week to try to bring the two parties together after a failed attempt by African Union Chairman John Kufuor, postponed his visit because of illness.
