KEY POINTS:
Opposition leader Raila Odinga vowed to defy police and hold a rally today to demand Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki quit over a disputed election, which has sparked violence that has killed more than 300 people.
Last night police used teargas and water cannon against several hundred anti-government protesters chanting "Peace" as they sat down on a Nairobi highway, blocking a major roundabout.
Both sides have traded accusations of genocide in the days of violence that has shocked world leaders and choked off supplies of fuel and other goods to a swathe of central African nations.
"What [Kibaki] did was nothing short of a civilian coup d'etat and he is now ruling by decree. Should we allow this kind of crime to be committed against the people of Kenya?" Odinga told the BBC. "This is a defining moment. The people will not take this vote-rigging by the Government lying down. We also cannot have a government shooting at the people."
Kenya is East Africa's biggest economy and a key ally of the West. It is used to being a peacemaker on a volatile continent.
As young men armed with machetes manned roadblocks in rural areas, the turmoil also hit financial and commodity markets.
The Opposition urged its supporters to turn out in large numbers for the planned rally in the centre of the capital Nairobi. Police said they had banned the rally because they did not have the capacity to ensure security.
"There is no such law in Kenya that anybody cannot attend a political rally," William Ruto, a senior Opposition official, said. "We have notified the police commissioner and he should live up to his duty of providing security."
A local and an international rights group said more than 300 people had been killed in the violence and both accused Kenyan security forces of having violently repressed protests by opposition supporters. Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe was targeted in the initial clashes but revenge killings by Kikuyus are on the rise.
The Government said it was becoming clear "well-organised acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing were well-planned, financed and rehearsed" by leaders from Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement ahead of the December 27 election.
The Opposition accused the Government of acts "bordering on genocide" by ordering police to shoot protesters enraged by Kibaki's victory at the polls. International observers said the election fell short of democratic standards.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was phoning Kibaki and Odinga to urge both to "do everything they possibly can in the name of political reconciliation" to end the violence, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu was due to meet the head of Kenya's electoral commission. Ghanaian President John Kufuor was waiting to talk to Kibaki before deciding whether to visit Nairobi or send a team.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni sent congratulations to Kibaki, the first endorsement by a fellow African leader.
- REUTERS
