January 19, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 09, 1429

NAIROBI, Jan 18: Kenyan police shot dead five protesters Friday on the last day of rallies against President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election before the opposition launches a threatened boycott of government-linked companies.

The fresh violence came as the United Nations said former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan would fly to Kenya on Tuesday to help mediate in the political crisis.

Four people were shot dead in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, and another shortly after Friday prayers in Mombasa, Kenya’s second city, police said, bringing to 24 the number of people killed since rallies kicked off on Wednesday.

“The demonstrators (in Kibera) were charging at the officers with stones and that is when police fired at them. Four of them have been killed,” a police commander told AFP.

At least 19 other Kenyans have been killed over the past two days, including four in overnight clashes in the Narok area, northwest of the capital.

Police found the bodies of four members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe with arrow or machete wounds.

They were killed by Maasai youths who supported opposition leader Raila Odinga in last month’s disputed presidential poll.

Demonstrations were also held in the western towns of Kisumu and Eldoret, the worst-hit by the wave of violence that shattered Kenya’s image as a beacon of stability in the restive region.

Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) said it was ending the protests because civilians were paying too heavy a price.

“Today is the last day of demonstrations. We have seen a lot of suffering caused by reckless police action against peaceful protesters,” ODM spokesman Salim Lone said.

Odinga says he was robbed of the presidency in December polls, accusing Kibaki of rigging his re-election. His party described the 76-year-old president as “an eminent thief”.

More than 700 people have been killed in riots, police raids and ethnically-driven clashes since Kibaki was declared the winner of the election on December 30.

A UN statement on Friday said Annan, whose mediation mission had been scheduled to begin on Tuesday but was postponed due to ill health, would make the trip next week.

Annan was named as head of a panel of senior African political figures tasked with bringing Kibaki and Odinga together.

The ODM announced it’s next tactic would be to undermine a government packed with Kibaki’s closest allies by targeting their sources of funding.

“We are now moving on to a new phase of the struggle and this will include initiating (an) economic boycott by consumers of large companies owned by hardliners around Mr Kibaki,” Lone said.

He specifically named Brookside Dairies — a large company owned by Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta — as well as the Citi Hoppa public transport company, Kenya Bus Services and Equity Bank.

All the companies are owned by leading members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, which has dominated the country’s political and economic life for years.

The government dismissed the boycott call.

“It’s the right of the people of Kenya to choose what to do. But I bet it will fail,” government spokesman Alfred Mutua said in a statement.

While no major foreign power has come out strongly against Kibaki, the international community has voiced concern over flaws in last month’s polls and urged feuding factions to engage in dialogue and stop the bloodshed.

Kibaki’s office announced a special committee — headed by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka — had been formed to launch a “national political dialogue” aimed at reconciliation.—AFP