Nation Team
19 January 2008
Nairobi — The Orange Democratic Movement Friday ended its three days of mass action and announced a new strategy of economic boycott to protest against the outcome of the disputed presidential election.
The new strategy would involve a call on its supporters to boycott products of certain companies whose owners and leaders were said by ODM to be close to President Kibaki's Party of National Unity.
The party's spokesman, Mr Salim Lone, said they had officially ended the peaceful demonstrations countrywide to allow for international mediation which starts next week.
Street protests
The end of the street protests in several towns across the country coincided with renewed hope that the political conflict which has gripped the country since December 30 last year may be resolved across the negotiating table.
On Friday, reports indicated that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the wife of former South African President Graca Machel are expected in the country on Tuesday as part of the international mediation effort.
There were also reports that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will be in Nairobi next week as part of efforts to end the Kenyan conflict which has attracted worldwide attention.
Sources said that an advance team from Uganda was already in the country.
Mr Museveni is the chairman of the East Africa Community and also the Commonwealth.
It was not immediately clear whether President Museveni, Mr Annan, Mrs Machel and other eminent African leaders will meet President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga jointly or separately.
President Kibaki, meanwhile, named a 10-member team headed by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, to spearhead efforts at national reconciliation.
The team will be free to bring in more people to the effort, the President said in the proclamation. Meanwhile, the death toll from the three days of protests rose to 21 when 12 more people were reported to have died in Narok, Nairobi and Mombasa.
Four of the dead were shot within the Kibera slums in the city as police conducted a house-to-house search to arrest those who destroyed a section of the Nairobi-Kisumu railway which passes through the area.
Reports said three more people had been slashed to death in Nairobi's Kariobangi North area where TV footage showed men wielding machetes and declaring they had armed themselves for self-defence.
Four others were reported dead in Narok with arrow and spear wounds, while one was shot dead in Mombasa.
Mr Odinga announced the end of mass action when he visited some of the injured people who were being treated at the Masaba Hospital, Nairobi, saying a news conference giving further details will be called today.
Earlier, ODM spokesman Mr Lone said: "We have officially ended the three days of mass action for now. This is to allow for international mediation which starts next week."
He said this was the position stated by the ODM leader, Mr Odinga, to a group of Western journalists on Thursday afternoon.
Mr Lone recalled that the party had called off similar protests when Ghanaian President John Kufuor arrived in the country two weeks ago to mediate between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga over the disputed presidential results.
He said the next plan of action on economic boycott targeting "hard-liners" linked to President Kibaki's PNU will be announced next week.
Protestors also uprooted a section of the Nairobi-Kisumu at Kibos in Kisumu.
In Nairobi, men driving in a pick-up vehicle lit tyres and abandoned them on Mombasa Road near the junction to Imara Daima estate in Nairobi and fled, but members of the public quickly cleared the road allowing traffic to flow
Unlike on previous days, Nairobi remained relatively calm with police searching for the arsonists who were captured on TV destroying the railway line.
There was also a brief scuffle between police and youths who tried to join Ugenya MP James Orengo and ODM activist Martin Shikuku on a march after Friday prayers at the Jamia Mosque.
Mr Shikuku was briefly held by police but was later released.
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So tell me where is the wisdom in boycotting companies that employ people across all sectors of the community? Doesn't Raila realize that ordinary people will lose their jobs - as likely to be ODM supporters as not? Ok for the politicians, but not OK for the ordinary Kenyans who have been seduced into believing he can deliver on his improbable election promises. Look at the gap between the fancy suited ODM leaders encouraging people to acts of violence, and the long lines of ordinary Kenyans with everything lost, no food, as a result of his appaling lack of political and human acumen. Baobab
Does mr. odinga think that having a run down country is a smart idea?. If he does then he had better think twice.