Kenya: “Let People Die and Then There Will be a Change”

If at first you don’t succeed try, try again. That’s the battle cry from Kenya’s opposition party, who will attempt to rally in protest over the disputed election results for the 3rd time. Thousands of police in Kenya have been deployed in Nairobi to prevent this rally once more.

It is not surprising that people are having difficultly getting to the rally. Blogflict has been in touch with a resident of Kenya who reports to us that transportation is extremely limited if not frozen in many parts of the country. Our source also informed us, “the dreaded GSU police were in there hundreds yesterday at the venue of the rally and hundreds more deployed to the city estates to stop guys from leaving their houses or even to gather around.”

Kenya’s opposition party has called for a new presidential election to settle a disputed vote that has sparked days of deadly riots, while protesters gathered on street corners in the capital’s slums to prepare for a rally on Friday.

We are trying to go to Uhuru Park today,” said Joshua Okoth, standing with a group of young men by the smoking remains of a former food market.

“Let people die and then there will be a change,” said Okoth.

Reports of violence, looting and fires were sporadic in Nairobi’s sprawling slums, including Kibera, from which residents had left en masse to Uhuru Park.

Video from Nairobi’s outskirts showed streets littered with broken glass, overturned Coca-Cola crates and, in some places, fires. One man carried a sign that read: “Shame on you Kibaki you raped our democracy.”

Meanwhile, children’s bodies piled up in a Nairobi morgue, churches burned and police on horseback chased pedestrians through the streets. Estimates are that the violence has now taken over 300 lives.  The opposition party has called for new elections to be held in the wake of the upheaval.

To view a map of where they are attempting to hold the rally, click here.