Samwel Kumba
16 January 2008
Riot police have braved the morning drizzle and cordoned off Nairobi's Uhuru Park, one of the key venues of today's mass protests called by the Orange Democratic Movement.
There is heavy police presence in other venues across the country, especially in Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret.
Police have insisted the rallies stand outlawed for security reasons. However, unlike the previously planned rallies where the police closed some roads leading to the central business district, flow of traffic so far is normal.
This included traffic along the main arteries such as Jogoo Road through Landhies Road, Thika Road through Pangani as well as Ngong Road and Mbagathi Way.
However, there was a heavy police presence at the Nairobi's Police Traffic headquarters, just a kilometer from Uhuru Park. Later, Nation learnt that the police were being deployed from there in buses to various parts of the city where the rallies were scheduled to take place.
Along the city streets and especially in and around Uhuru Park, police patrolled on foot and on horseback albeit normal business going on in the chilly morning.
ODM's earlier attempts to hold a rally at the park have been blocked by police forcing the party to change its strategy by calling 48 rallies across the country over three days.
Human rights organisations have criticised the Government decision to outlaw the protests saying it infringed on the people's freedom of assembly and right to hold peaceful demonstrations.
But the police commissioner Major General Hussein Ali has argued that hooligans were likely to take advantage of the rallies to wreak havoc to businesses by engaging in looting and destruction of property.
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