Kenyan Police Fire Teargas Into Opposition Rallies

Police fired teargas to disperse protesters in Kenyan cities to once again suppress planned opposition rallies against the bitterly disputed re-election of president Mwai Kibaki.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose supporters believe Kibaki rigged the vote, called the rallies in 42 locations nationwide, in defiance of a government ban.

Plans for similar rallies earlier this month were canceled after protesters were beaten back by water canon, teargas and bullets.

Odinga's supporters promised to continue protesting until Kibaki acknowledges that his election was flawed.

But Nairobi was reported to be mostly calm today with a heavy police presence on the streets, particularly around Uhuru Park where a rally was planned.

Some anti-government anger may have calmed after the election yesterday of an opposition candidate as parliamentary speaker, the third most powerful post in Kenya.

Protesters were again prevented from leaving Nairobi's Kibera slum, and dispersed by tear gas and gunfire.

In the coastal city of Mombasa, police hurled tear gas and used batons to beat back several groups of protesters, several-hundred strong, on the outskirts of the city.

In the western town of Kisumu, about thousand people were on the streets carrying a coffin with Kibaki's name on it. Protesters there threw rocks at security forces and one bloodied demonstrator was wounded, though it was not clear how. The TV station KTN said the atmosphere in Kisumu was "chaotic".

The western city of Eldoret was reported to be quiet, though protesters there erected several makeshift roadblocks on the outskirts of town.

On one, a dead dog was draped over a pile of rocks with a sign that said "Kibaki Death".

"We are going to keep up the pressure from every legal angle and through all peaceful means until the government agrees to acknowledge that the election results were false and that a solution must found to the political crisis," said Salim Lone, from Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement.

Foreign observers have said the presidential election, held on December 27, was deeply flawed. And although the electoral chief pronounced Kibaki the victor, he later said he had been pressured to release the results and did not know who won.

Michael Ranneberger, the US ambassador to Kenya, told the Daily Nation, that it was not clear who won, because the process was not transparent.

The post election violence has killed more than 600 people, and displaced more than 250,000.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan had been scheduled to travel to Nairobi last night to encourage mediation between Odinga and Kibaki.

But he stayed away due to "severe flu". On Monday a key ministerial ally of Kibaki said that Annan had not been invited.