Taped Shooting Of Protester Rattles Kenya

Via CBS -

(CBS/AP) Violence has again engulfed Kenya, after television video showing police shooting a young, unarmed anti-government protester to death enraged opponents of President Mwai Kibaki.

According to opposition leaders, at least seven more people had been shot and killed in the Mathare slum early on Thursday, and a 5-year-old boy in the Kibera slum was wounded in the leg, CBS News reporter Katherine Arms reports. Both sprawling slums are in Nairobi.

Anger is high across the country after the scenes of vicious violence from the town of Kisumu aired on local the private Kenya Television Network.

The video shows a lone policeman chasing a handful of unarmed young men down a side-street in the town of Kisumu. The policeman is seen firing and two of the men fall. The policemen then kicks one of them.

In a statement sent to Arms by opposition leader Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, the party said it "condemns in the strongest terms the cold-blooded execution of a wounded youth who was peacefully protesting in Kisumu."

"We demand the immediate prosecution of the officer who committed this murder, and those who have issued the shoot to kill instructions to police. This killing and the other acts of violence inflicted on peaceful protestors will be part of the case we are filing with the International Criminal Court in The Hague," against the Kibaki government, the ODM statement said.

Kibaki was declared winner of a contested Dec. 27 election - deemed deeply flawed by international observers, which touched off weeks of violent protests and clashes along tribal lines.

Machete-wielding young slum dwellers in Nairobi hurled stones at police who fired tear gas and gunshots Thursday, the second day of opposition protests. Arms says Thursday will likely be far more violent than the previous day, due primarily to the airing of the video from Kisumu.

Most of the violence has pitted members of the president's Kikuyu tribe against other ethnic groups, including the Luo, of which Odinga is a member.

"Our rallies will continue until the government sits down with us and seeks a solution," said opposition spokesman Salim Lone. "Calling off rallies would be admitting defeat to those who first stole the presidential election and are now killing innocent protesters on sight."

Speaking to reporters, government spokesman Alfred Mutua repeated President Kibaki's position the opposition should take its grievances to court and said Kibaki's administration "is very open to dialogue."

Riots and ethnic killings in the wake of the disputed vote have marred Kenya's image as a stable democratic oasis in a war-ravaged region and damaged its tourist-dependent economy. It has also exacerbated long-simmering ethnic tensions and conflicts over land.