NAIROBI - Kenya's opposition, bloodied by protests that killed more than 20 people, called Saturday for more rallies as well as economic boycotts and strikes, hoping to paralyze the government it claims stole the presidential election.
"We will use each and every means to bring down Kibaki's government,'' said the opposition party chairman, Henry Kosgey. He called for "peaceful rallies'' across the country on Thursday. Each such call, in defiance of a government ban, has been met with forceful police action.
Opposition spokesman Salim Lone said Odinga would call for a "boycott of companies owned by hardliners who are around Mr. Kibaki,'' including one of Kenya's biggest banks, a prominent bus company and a major dairy producer. Lone also said the oppoisition would work with unions "to organize strikes in selected industries.''
Violence continued Saturday when five more people died in ethnic clashes. Kalenjin, Kisii and Kikuyu fought each other with bows and arrows and machetes in villages around a Catholic monastery northwest of Nairobi. Police said they were guarding the monastery, where hundreds of people have sought refuge.
Nearly 200 houses were set ablaze in what appeared to be an old argument about land.
U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, citing "many factors and underlying grievances,'' compared Kenya's violence to the 1968 race riots in the United States.
At a town hall meeting Friday for Americans in Nairobi, Ranneberger said there was "a lot of cheating on both sides'' in the Dec. 27 elections that pitted President Mwai Kibaki against opposition leader Raila Odinga.
The U.S. maintains there were allegations of improprieties on both sides which were not properly investigated, and Ranneberger said either Odinga or Kibaki could have won by 120,000 votes because it was a close election and both sides are alleged to have rigged.
But David Throup, an associate of the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a public conference call with Ranneberger, that Odinga won by 120,000 votes.
Kibaki's power becomes more entrenched each day. The opposition's best hope may rest in a power-sharing agreement that might make Odinga prime minister or vice-president.
International mediation continued and a group of former African presidents met with both Odinga and Kibaki, Odinga told reporters after the meeting Friday.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is expected Tuesday to lead mediation efforts, his office in Geneva said.
The European Union's Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Louis Michel, arrived in Nairobi on Saturday and met with Deputy President Kalonzo Musyoka.
Kalonzo said that "We are trying to come out with a healing process and a process which also ensures we engage each other as Kenyans in dialogue.'' He said Kibaki was determined to spearhead the dialogue.
But Kibaki has said he wants direct talks with Odinga, not mediation.
Legislators at the European Parliament this week urged aid cuts to help force Kibaki to negotiate.
More than 600 people have been killed in Kenya's election violence, according to a government commission, the worst turmoil since a failed 1982 coup attempt in which Odinga participated.
Also Saturday, two Germans and a Dutch national arrested on suspicion of "terrorist activities'' in Kenya were released, the wife of one of them told The Associated Press.
Andrej Hermlin-Leder, a Berlin-based jazz musician, was released a day after Kenyan authorities confirmed his arrest, his Kenyan wife, Joyce Hermlin-Leder, told the AP in Berlin.
A second German, photographer Gerd-Uwe Hauth, and Dutch documentary filmmaker Fleur van Dissel were also free again, she said. The Dutch Foreign Ministry also confirmed that van Dissel was released without charge.
