Kenyan opposition rally falters

A planned opposition rally appeared to falter on Friday, giving Kenya some respite from post-election turmoil that has killed more than 300 people.

"We're tired, we're not going to march," said Samuel Muhati, a resident of the Mathare slum, where thousands of demonstrators battled police on Thursday. "Let the fighting stop."

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer was due in Nairobi on Friday evening to meet President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says he was robbed of victory in a December 27 vote in east Africa's biggest economy.

"They have an opportunity to come together in some kind of arrangement that will help heal the wounds," U.S. President George W. Bush told Reuters, joining a chorus of international appeals to end Kenya's deadly chaos.

From dawn, police guarded Nairobi's Uhuru (Freedom) Park, where the protest was supposed to start at 10 a.m. (7 a.m. British time).

But opposition leaders had not arrived at their Pentagon House headquarters by that time, and exhausted supporters in the slums were largely staying at home.

Protesters battled for hours on Thursday to march on the park but were held back by police firing teargas, water cannon and warning shots.

Half a dozen people died, mostly in tribal killings in the slums.

A week of ethnic violence and riots since the election has shocked the world and jeopardised Kenya's reputation as one of Africa's most promising democracies.

More than 300 people have died in the clashes -- some between police and protesters, others pitting members of Odinga's Luo ethnic group and other tribes against Kibaki's Kikuyus.

More than 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes by the violence, more than 5,000 crossing the border to Uganda.

As international pressure failed to bring Kibaki and Odinga together, there was increasing impatience among Kenyans.

"Despite the words of concern by both sides about the dangerous situation in Kenya and public statements that they are ready for dialogue, belligerence is still drowning out voices of reason," said the Daily Nation newspaper.

There were growing calls for some sort of power-sharing government. But neither Kibaki nor Odinga appeared ready for that, the latter saying he was voted the legitimate president.

"BANANA REPUBLIC"

Kenyans are aghast at the turmoil in a nation popular among tourists for its safaris and Indian Ocean beaches, and which is a major hub for the United Nations, diplomats, journalists, aid workers and others working round turbulent east Africa.

"Banana republic images on all major Western TV channels, newspapers and Web sites of bodies in morgues and of police violence and of tribal warriors wielding machetes and axes, are sickening and horrifying," wrote commentator Fred Mudhai.

In the capital's tribally polarised shanty towns, witnesses said the bloodshed went on into the early hours of Friday.

"They are mixing petrol bombs as we speak," said a resident of Kibera, one of Africa's biggest slums.

With the economic ramifications starting to sink in, stocks and currency trade restarted on Friday after being halted during Thursday's street battles. But few brokers traded and they kept a wary eye on developments.

The World Bank said the violence could hurt Kenya's impressive economic gains - and harm countries in the region that rely on it as the region's business hub.

Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are already suffering fuel shortages as the conflict chokes off supplies from Mombasa port.

Senior officials from both sides of Kenya's bitter political divide have traded accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing. But on Thursday, Kibaki struck a more conciliatory note in his first words to the press since the troubles began.

"I am ready to have dialogue with the concerned parties once the nation is calm," he told reporters.

The European Union has also urged him and Odinga to form a coalition government. Its observer mission said the election fell short of democratic standards.

Kenya's Attorney General Amos Wako said on Thursday both sides should agree on an independent person or body to carry out "a proper tally" of the votes cast.

Many Kenyans were sceptical a recount would work.

"What African president can step down in these circumstances?" said George, a hotel worker. "Besides, the government has had that paperwork for a week. If they cheated, it has been forged by now. Or more likely they burned it."

Kibkoech Tanui, a Standard newspaper editor, said even letting Kibaki serve another five years despite the suspect manner of his win would be acceptable if it stopped bloodshed like the massacre of 30 people in a rural church.

"I would wipe away my tears and stifle my sense of being cheated if the alternative is churches being turned into pyres to burn up children who might not even know who is ruling Kenya," he wrote.