Nairobi calm as new demonstration fails.

02 Jan, 2008

There is relative calm in Nairobi despite calls by the opposition party Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) for a re-run on 4 January of the aborted protest rally of the previous day against the outcome of the presidential elections of 27 December. International media sources report a general lack of enthusiasm among opposition supporters for the demonstration, possibly in light of the display of force shown by riot police and the paramilitary in preventing demonstrators from reaching the venue in the central Uhuru park on 3 January. The poor turnout may also be due to confusion over the date of the new protest, which had originally been rescheduled for 8 January. The several hundred people who reportedly set out for the demonstration have once again failed to reach the venue.

Father Kizito Sesana, a Comboni missionary and journalist working in Nairobi