By Daniel Wallis
Police have banned all demonstrations since President Mwai Kibaki was re-elected in a ballot his rival Raila Odinga says was rigged. After African Union mediation collapsed, Odinga's party vowed to launch protests around the country on Wednesday.
Kenya has been hit by riots and tribal clashes killing some 500 people in two weeks, and the opposition says many of the victims were shot dead by police.
"Kenyan security forces have a duty to rein in criminal violence and should protect people, but they shouldn't turn their weapons on peaceful protesters," Human Rights Watch (HRW) acting Africa director Georgette Gagnon said in a statement.
"The government should make it very clear that police will be held to account for using lethal force against people for simply expressing political views."
The group said its staff had received credible reports that dozens of people were shot dead by police during demonstrations in Odinga's western stronghold of Kisumu.
HRW said the government should allow peaceful protests. The security forces say they only shot determined looters.
The wave of unrest since the ballot, which international observers said was flawed, has dented the democratic credentials of east Africa's biggest economy and shocked world powers.
The United Nations says 250,000 Kenyans have been uprooted by the violence and that half a million will need emergency aid, including food handouts.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due in Nairobi this week to lead a new push for peace after AU chairman and Ghanaian President John Kufuor failed to broker a deal.
"PRECIPICE"
But as tensions mounted, the opposition called on Friday for international sanctions against Kibaki's administration.
On Saturday, the European Union and United States warned that there could be "no business as usual" with Nairobi unless a political compromise was agreed that restored stability. Kibaki and Odinga have not met face-to-face since the crisis began.
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said both men should acknowledge serious irregularities in the vote count that made it impossible to know with certainty who had won.
An EU source told Reuters it was too early to talk about sanctions. But the source said that if there was no positive outcome from Annan's mission, the EU would "seriously review" its relations with Kenya, including the issue of sanctions.
Kenya's parliament, where Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement won 99 seats compared to 43 for Kibaki's Party of National Unity, is due to meet to elect a speaker on Tuesday, and that is likely to prove another flashpoint.
Kenyans have been rocked by the turmoil in their country, which has long been a favourite of tourists and seen as a rare island of calm in an often dangerous region.
Mutuma Mathiu, managing editor of the Sunday Nation newspaper, said Kenyans were "dangling on the edge of a precipice", not just because of the planned protests and risk of more ethnic massacres, but because of the capacity for barbarity that many had shown against their neighbours.
"I am horrified beyond measure," he wrote. "My greatest fear is that when the authorities and rescuers have combed every village, they will discover that many, many more people have been massacred in this wave of unspeakable crimes."
Source: Reuters, Jan 13, 2008