Protest Rallies Across Kenya Draw Relatively Small Crowds

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.