By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 17, 2008

NAIROBI, Jan. 16 -- Three days of planned opposition rallies across Kenya began haltingly Wednesday, with police facing off against relatively small crowds in several cities and chasing opposition leaders with tear gas through the streets of the capital.

At least two people were killed in western Kenya, news services reported.

The protests in Nairobi were confined to several downtown blocks, with regular life carrying on just beyond the clouds of tear gas.

It remains unclear whether the supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the Dec. 27 presidential election, have lost momentum or are being stifled by security forces that have beaten back bands of protesters week after week. At least 600 people have been killed in the post-election crisis.

In a news conference Wednesday, Odinga and other opposition leaders -- in a celebratory mood after their candidate won the speakership of parliament Tuesday -- promised fresh protests in the coming days.

"This is a process," said Najib Balala, a leader in Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement. "We're going to disrupt the economy."

The largest protest Wednesday occurred in the western city of Eldoret, where tens of thousands of people belonging mostly to Kibaki's tribe, the Kikuyu, have been displaced by groups loyal to Odinga.

But in Nairobi, children headed to school and people went to work and shopped at busy roadside markets as usual for most of the day, despite a morning skirmish between protesters and police in a slum area.

After the news conference at opposition headquarters, about 100 supporters tied orange bandannas around their arms and cheered and danced for a group of reporters, but the street behind them was empty.

Several opposition leaders then decided to face the batons and tear gas themselves, after weeks of calling on their supporters to risk death or injury protesting in the streets.

Around 2 p.m., they left their headquarters and set off for downtown Nairobi in a caravan of Land Cruisers, Lexus sport-utility vehicles and sedans.

The leaders positioned themselves at different points, planning to converge as they marched toward the park that serves as the city's traditional demonstration area.

Balala and a couple of dozen supporters gathered at the Hilton hotel. Police promptly tear-gassed them.

The group then jogged a few more blocks and paused at a corner, where a woman yelled at them. "We just want to go back to work!" she said.

One after another, shopkeepers began slamming down steel gates to protect their storefronts, and the streets began to clear.

Police fired more tear gas, scattering the demonstrators and sending Balala barreling down the street like a linebacker. After the scene was repeated a few more times, he hopped into his Land Cruiser and headed for the swanky Serena Hotel.

Around 4 p.m., the opposition leaders walked out of the hotel, leaving downtown Nairobi in a miasma of tear gas and mostly shuttered for the rest of the day.

Downtown workers headed home early.

"If there are protests for two days more, we shall be so tired," said Ezekiel Muhaya, an opposition supporter who was sent home from his job selling sporting goods.