Kenyan Opposition Calls Off Protest

Kenyan opposition leaders today called off a protest rally, telling supporters to go home after riot police dispersed crowds by firing teargas and water cannon and shooting into the air.

The opposition leader, Raila Odinga, had called on 1 million of his supporters to assemble in the capital, Nairobi, to demonstrate against the re-election of president Mwai Kibaki.

However, only a few hundred had arrived for the demonstration this morning amid fears of fresh violence, and Odinga postponed it until next Tuesday.

Police in riot gear gathered in force around the empty park, preventing opposition supporters from leaving the Nairobi slums, where the bulk of support for Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement is based.

After being held back by police, some protesters staged sit-ins on the streets, stopping traffic.

Reuters reported that protesters shouted: "Kill us all" after police fired shots into the air. Elsewhere, smoke from burning tyres rose from the streets as gunshots rang out.

The Nairobi police chief, Mark Mwara, called the protesters "hooligans", accusing them of attacking petrol stations and supermarkets.

Opposition officials claim the election was stolen, and EU monitors described it as flawed.

The dispute has sparked ethnic violence in which more than 300 people have died.

In the worst incident, up to 50 people from the Kikuyu tribe - many of them children - were burned to death in a church in Eldoret where they had been sheltering from the clashes.

Odinga and Kibaki have accused each other of fuelling ethnic violence. Both have agreed to negotiate, but Odinga says he will only do so if new elections are held.

More than 100 pro-Kibai MPs signed a statement calling on the international criminal court to indict opposition leaders for genocide and ethnic cleansing.

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

The Norwegian Refugee Council estimated that more than 100,000 people had been displaced since the election and its violent aftermath. Around 5,400 people have fled to neighboring Uganda.

In an apparent attempt to help ease the crisis, the South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu flew to Nairobi, where he is due to meet Odinga later today.

Calling Kibaki a "thief" who had carried out "a civilian coup", Odinga nevertheless said he would accept international mediation.

He also proposed setting up an interim power-sharing government to prepare for a rerun of the vote. "The people will not take this vote-rigging by the government lying down," he said.

However, Alfred Mutua, a government spokesman, said Kibaki had no plans to meet Tutu.

"This is a country that has been held up as a model of stability. This picture has been shattered," Tutu said.

"I don't think there is anybody who would be unmoved by the pictures that are coming out, of people who burned to death in a church. This is not the Kenya that we know."

Meanwhile, the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, became the first African leader to congratulate Kibaki on his re-election.

Kenyan media appealed for peace, with every major newspaper running the same front page headline: "Save Our Beloved Country".

"Kenya is a burnt-out, smoldering ruin. The economy is at a virtual standstill and the armies of destruction are on the march," the Nation newspaper said.

"In the midst of this, leaders - who are the direct cause of this catastrophe - are issuing half-hearted calls for peace from the comfort of their hotels and walled homes in Nairobi, where they are conveyed in bullet-proof limousines."

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was contacting Kibaki and Odinga to urge both to "do everything they possibly can in the name of political reconciliation", a spokesman said.