Bodies and debris lay in Kenyan streets on Tuesday as Western powers pressured President Mwai Kibaki to investigate a disputed poll that has triggered days of deadly riots killing around 250 people. With a death toll rising from overnight violence and more rioting expected, the United States and Britain pressed Kenya to probe suspected voting irregularities in an election that returned Kibaki for a second five-year term.
Enraged supporters of opposition challenger Raila Odinga clashed with police and looted stores owned by Kenyans belonging to Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, paralyzing East Africa’s biggest economy as businesses shut and petrol pumps ran dry. Scores of heavily armed police patrolled the streets of Nairobi on Tuesday morning under orders from Kibaki to "deal with troublemakers".
Most deaths so far have come from police firing at protesters witnesses say, prompting accusations that what is traditionally the region’s most stable nation had become a "police state". The Red Cross said it had counted 120 deaths by Monday night but expected the toll to rise.100 bodies were lying in a mortuary there, all with gun wounds.
Odinga whose party unseated most of Kibaki’s cabinet and took a huge majority in concurrent parliamentary polls – says the presidential vote was a stitch up. He had led in every opinion poll bar one during the campaign. "They have robbed us of our victory and now they are shooting us. How can one man (Kibaki) cheat a whole nation? If a guerrilla war starts, I am ready to join in," said Stanley Bwire, a Nairobi night watchman.