NAIROBI, Jan 11: Kenya's opposition on Friday said it would restart nationwide protests next week, setting up a new showdown with police after international mediation failed to broker a deal with the government.

Kenya's police chief immediately banned the protests, citing security reasons.

“Police think it is not appropriate at this time,” police commissioner major general Mohamed Hussein Ali told journalists, shortly after opposition leaders called for three days of protests in some 30 towns across the country.

“The restrictions that we have had on post-election rallies are still in place,” Ali added.

After violent clashes sparked by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election on Dec 30, which killed some 600 people and displaced around a quarter of a million, Kenyan police have thwarted several mass opposition protest rallies.

The crisis has shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of stability in a restive region and dealt a serious blow to the largest economy in east Africa.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who accuses Kibaki of rigging his way to a second five-year term, had temporarily called off protests amid international efforts to broker a political settlement.

But when African Union-mediated talks ended in failure on Thursday, Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement struck back with more protest promises.

“We are asking countrymen and women to join us Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week from 10:00 in the morning,” Anyang Nyongo, secretary general of Odinga's ODM, said at a press conference on Friday, after announcing a rally in a central Nairobi park for Wednesday.

With efforts to clinch a power-sharing deal between Kibaki and Odinga in limbo, the prospect of fresh rallies heightened fears of another round of deadly violence.

“Kenyans are entitled to protest peacefully,” Nyongo said.

Kenyan police have so far taken a tough stance against opposition supporters, using tear gas and large deployments of its special paramilitary units to disperse gatherings.

Nyongo said the ODM leaders were not afraid of being arrested.

Kenyan authorities last week warned Odinga, who refuses to recognise Kibaki as president, that he himself would face arrest if he went ahead with unauthorised demonstrations.

African Union Chairman John Kufuor, who sought to mediate between Kibaki and Odinga, left Kenya after two days on Thursday with little to show, apart from naming former UN chief Kofi Annan to replace him.

The top US Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer, who has been in Kenya for the past week, was expected to leave Friday.

“The United States is not going to back away, Kenya is our partner and we are going to keep asking both sides to keep seeking a solution,” a US diplomat told AFP. “But we are going to let the (Annan) mediation take the lead.” Kibaki, who was sworn in for a second five-year term less than an hour after the results were announced last month, has wasted no time in forming a cabinet packed with close allies.He presented the line-up as a “broad-based” cabinet — with opposition presidential challenger Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president — but the ODM rejected it as a slap in the face of peace efforts.

At the ODM news conference, Nyongo urged the international community to place sanctions on Kibaki's government.

“You cannot trust a government that steals votes with the precious resources we get from our international partners,” he said. “It's inappropriate to trust this government with a single cent.” No foreign power has so far come out strongly against Kibaki, with mediation efforts focused on urging Odinga to rein in his supporters and guarantee that violence will not flare up afresh.

At least one person was wounded by an arrow and six homes burned late Thursday near the western town of Kisii, Nyanza provincial police commander Grace Kaindi said.

According to local security sources, the fighting pitted members of the Kisii tribe who supported Kibaki against members of the Kalenjin tribe, who sided with Odinga.

Relief efforts continued Friday in the worst affected parts of the country, with food distributions in the western town of Eldoret and in several Nairobi slums.

—AFP