OPPOSITION LEADER URGES ELECTION PROTEST

NAIROBI Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga urged his supporters to skip work on Monday to protest what he charged were rigged elections that gave victory to President Uhuru Kenyatta. The government denounced violent demonstrations as unlawful and urged Kenyans to return to their jobs.

Odinga spoke on Sunday to a cheering crowd in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, an opposition stronghold and a frequent scene of clashes between stone-throwing protesters and police firing live ammunition and tear gas since the Aug. 8 election in which President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner.

Odinga’s defiance fuelled continuing uncertainty in Kenya, an East African economic hub whose reputation for stability has been shaken by election violence and court challenges in the past.

“There is no work until Tuesday, when we will announce the next step,” said Odinga, who previously claimed that last week’s vote was rigged and has unsuccessfully run for president on three previous occasions. Kenya’s election commission said its process was fair, and international observers praised its handling of the election in this country of 45 million people.

Late Sunday, machete-wielding members of two rival ethnic groups — Luos and Kikuyus — confronted each other in Mathare, another Nairobi slum, witnesses said.

BEN CURTIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, speaking to supporters in Nairobi on Sunday, condemned police killings of rioters during protests following the country’s disputed election and is urging supporters to skip work Monday.