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A BBC correspondent says two people have been shot in Nairobi’s Kibera slum and there are clashes in Kisumu in the west as police try to clear barricades. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has told the BBC that the international community should impose sanctions.

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Kenya’s police have fired into the air to disperse opposition supporters in cities across the country on the second day of protests against disputed polls.

A BBC correspondent says two people have been shot in Nairobi’s Kibera slum and there are clashes in Kisumu in the west as police try to clear barricades.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has told the BBC that the international community should impose sanctions.

The European Parliament is due to vote on whether to reduce aid to Kenya.

On the first day of the protests on Wednesday, at least three people were killed.

The police have banned all public protests. More than 600 people have died in violence since Mr Kibaki was declared the victor.

Mr Odinga is demanding a recount of the vote but says he will stop disputing the result if it shows Mr Kibaki won.

He also told the BBC’s Hardtalk programme that he would be prepared to take part in a “transitional coalition government” tasked with organising new elections within six months.

‘Defying instructions’

The BBC’s Noel Mwakugu in the capital, Nairobi, says there is also a standoff in the city’s Mathare slum.

Youths are burning tires and barricades and police have been firing into the air in an attempt to clear them.

In the western opposition stronghold of Kisumu, where two people were killed on Wednesday, residents of Kondele slum set up barricades on a main highway, which officers have been trying to clear.

TV footage showed a protester lying on the ground being kicked by a policeman. The man was found dead shortly afterwards with bullet wounds.

Kisumu’s most senior police officer, Grace Kahindi, told the BBC that local officers had ignored orders only to use tear gas and batons in putting down Wednesday’s protests, but would be more closely supervised.

“The specific instructions were very clear: teargas and batons. That’s what we said. We’re also trying to find out why, because we were not there,” she said.

Gunshots can already be heard in different areas of the city, correspondents say.

UN aid appeal

As the EU decides whether to freeze budgetary support to the Kenyan government, Mr Odinga called for tougher measures from the outside world.

“Sanctions is one way of putting pressure on Mr Kibaki to know that it is not going to be business as usual with the rest of the world, unless and until he agrees to a peaceful resolution to this artificially instigated crisis,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UN has launched a $34m humanitarian appeal for Kenya, to help those affected by the violence following the disputed election.

A quarter of a million people have left their homes and 6,000 have fled to neighbouring Uganda.

Kenya is East Africa’s most developed economy and its bread basket has traditionally been the Rift Valley, where maize is grown, but the ethnic violence there is affecting the country’s ability to feed itself.

Sir John Holmes, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, said the money the UN was seeking over the next six months would be mainly used for food aid.bbc

, Voice of a Nation

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