Kenyan police block fresh rally

Opposition parties say they intend to press ahead with protest plans, after police blocked their rally on Thursday, but there are no big crowds gathering.

The opposition wants a re-run of last week's presidential poll, which they say was rigged.

More than 300 people died in violence after the election. Another 70,000 have been displaced.

See an aerial map of Nairobi and the city centre

Police have sealed off Uhuru (Freedom) Park in Nairobi, the venue for the planned protests.

But the BBC's Grant Ferrett, who is in Nairobi, says fewer are on duty than before.

And with traffic back on the city streets, some shops and businesses have re-opened.

At one point several hundred youths had gathered outside the offices of defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga's ODM party in Nairobi, saying they intended to press ahead with their planned protest.

"This is a country that has been held up as a model of stability. This picture has been shattered"
Desmond Tutu
South African Archbishop

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But other opposition supporters have been telling the BBC they do not want to be beaten up by police.

On Thursday security forces blocked a banned mass rally in Nairobi, using tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowds.

Thousands of people had tried to gather in the city's Uhuru (Freedom) Park, many of them pouring out of Kibera slum and other shanty towns just after dawn.

Rerun call

Away from the violence, there is intense diplomatic and political activity.

"It would be like taking sheep to a court presided over by a hyena"
ODM leader William Ruto

The opposition has called for the presidential elections to be re-run, under independent supervision, and with the current electoral commission sidelined.

ODM secretary-general Anyang Nyongo said Mr Kibaki should step aside and a transitional administration should be set up, with the new elections to be held in three months.

A Kenyan government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, told the BBC the president was not in principle opposed to holding fresh elections.

But he said any new polls must follow the correct legal process.

Another opposition spokesman, William Ruto, rejected a call by the attorney general for an independent inquiry into the poll result "because the courts are full of people Mwai Kibaki has personally employed".

"It would be like taking sheep to a court presided over by a hyena," Mr Ruto added.

But Mr Mutua said Mr Kibaki had only appointed 10% of judges.

"He has said he wants to talk to everybody, but he's not going to bow down to people who are trying to bring anarchy to a country."

South African former Archbishop Desmond Tutu had a meeting with Mr Kibaki, following his meeting with Mr Odinga on Thursday.

Before the meeting, Archbishop Tutu was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying: "This is a country that has been held up as a model of stability. This picture has been shattered."

The United States' top diplomat on Africa, Jendayi Frazer, is also due to arrive in Kenya, in what US officials say will be attempt to persuade rival political leaders to talk.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he believed the Kenyan elections had been rigged.

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