Pleas for Peace

Kenyan police used tear gas and water cannons on Thursday as thousands of supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga took to the streets in downtown Nairobi, shouting "peace" and singing the national anthem. Despite a government ban, Odinga had called for a peaceful rally in Uhuru Park, which would unofficially crown him "president of the people."

"Kill us all!" cried a group of demonstrators, kneeling before riot police who fired warning shots into the air.

Nobel peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu, in Kenya as a mediator, said the country's reputation as a model of stability had been shattered.

"I don't think there is anybody who would be unmoved by the pictures that are coming out -- of people who burned to death in a church," he said, referring to an ethnically motivated attack on 30 members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe earlier this week. "This is not the Kenya that we know."

Violence broke out in the eastern African country following the disputed re-election of Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki on Dec. 27. Since then, some 340 people have been killed in the unrest and the Kenyan Red Cross estimates that 100,000 people have become refugees.

Germany, US call for peace

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked Odinga in a telephone conversation on Wednesday to "avoid provocation and violence." He talked with Kenyan Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju as well, insisting that the police adopt a policy of de-escalation.

According to the German foreign ministry, Odinga agreed to encourage peaceful behavior among his followers. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also appealed to the opposition leader for a peaceful resolution.

"In a free society, everyone has the right to demonstrate," Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, head of the EU's election monitoring team for the Kenya polls, told Deutsche Welle. "However, both the opposition and the government are called on to prevent further violence."

Democracy is at stake

Lambsdorff said that, while Europe and the US should assist Kenya, "only the Kenyans themselves can decide their country's future." Kibaki and Odinga have to move away from their extreme positions, he added.

Odinga sees himself as the rightful victor in last week's presidential elections and has accused Kibaki of fixing the results.

In an interview with the BBC, he called Thursday's protest march "the beginning of a long process" to secure democracy in the country. However, he has told reporters that he is open to international mediation and proposed setting up a temporary power-sharing government until a second election could be held.

Lambsdorff said that the recent violence would likely damage Kenya's reputation as a democratic country.

Presidential victor still unclear

Paul East, deputy head of the Commonwealth election observer group, said that it's not possible to establish an election winner at this time, according to the Associated Press.

He demanded that the election results be reevaluated by an independent judge, as did Ruprecht Polenz, chairman of the foreign policy committee in Germany's parliament.

Speaking Thursday morning on Germany's ZDF television channel, Polenz said the West's influence on Kenya was minimal. He called on China, which has close economic ties to the African country, to send a "clear message" to the Kenyan government.