NAIROBI (AFP) — Supporters of Kenyan opposition chief Raila Odinga were Friday set to defy a ban on a rally in the capital as international pressure for an end to the political crisis mounted.
The death toll from in post-election violence has already climbed past 350.
The Odinga camp vowed to make an attempt to hold the rally, a day after paramilitary units fired tear gas and water cannons to prevent thousands from gathering in Nairobi's Uhuru (independence) park.
President Mwai Kibaki, who Odinga has accused of having rigged the vote, reiterated his openness to dialogue.
But as the government continued to dismiss international offers of mediation, there seemed little sign of a breakthrough in the crisis.
"I'm ready to have dialogue with concerned parties once the nation is calm and the political temperatures are lowered enough for constructive and productive engagement," Kibaki told reporters Thursday. He vowed a firm crackdown on violence.
With worsening insecurity, the country's Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent probe into the December 27 vote results amid diplomatic pressure for Kibaki and Odinga to end violence that has claimed some 353 and displaced more than 100,000.
"It is necessary ... that a proper tally of the valid certificates returned and confirmed should be undertaken immediately on a priority basis by an agreed and independent person or body," Wako said.
Wako's position was call for an independent inquiry was backed from abroad by the World Council of Churches.
But Wako also stressed that Kibaki's re-election could only be nullified by the constitutional court.
Odinga, who had planned to declare himself the "people's president" at the rally prevented by police in Nairobi, denounced the crackdown during a tour of the city mortuary.
"We have seen so many dead kids cut with Pangas (machetes), we have seen bodies that have been decimated by fire," Odinga said at City Mortuary, after European envoys visited city slums to probe claims of police brutality.
After the police crackdown, William Ruto, a senior official in Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), said they would make an attempt to gather on Friday.
Ruto said Odinga was also ready to talk but suggested the international community needed to agree first on a mediating team.
At the international level however, the situation was confused.
While a European Union spokesman said Brussels and Washington were pushing for a unity government, the US state department denied that it wanted a coalition administration in Nairobi.
"It's not quite how the secretary (of state Condoleezza Rice), at least from our side, would characterize the situation," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.
Rice asked her top Africa diplomat, Jendayi Frazer, to travel immediately to Kenya. But it was unclear if Kibaki would meet her.
South Africa's Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu failed to secure an appointment with Kibaki after he met Odinga, with the government stressed he had not been invited.
Proposed joint mediation by the African Union and Commonwealth also fizzled out.
The Geneva-based World Council of Churches' Secretary General Samuel Kobia, a Kenyan, said international observers should monitor an independent probe into the election. US-based Freedom House proposed a total recount or a new poll.
The toll since election day stands at 353, according to a tally compiled by AFP from medical workers, police officials and mortuaries.
Police said 11 Kenyans were killed Thursday in the fifth day of nationwide unrest with the International Committee for Red Cross saying aid workers have been unable to reach all the affected zones.
Kenyan Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai has pleaded for talks and peace, while Kenya's two leading dailies had the same headline Thursday: "Save Our Beloved Country".
Kenya's Red Cross appealed for emergency funds of 7.5 million dollars (5.1 million euros) to help the displaced by the violence. Britain pledged give one million pounds (1.97 million dollars, 1.3 million euros).
The unrest has prompted many foreign tour operators to suspend trips to Kenya, depriving the country of a major source of revenue, but Nairobi said tourists were secure.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
He noted "with concern" that supply disruptions emanating from the developments in Kenya were affecting other countries in the region.
The World Bank also warned that the crisis was threatening to reverse not just Kenya's economic gains but other economies in the region.
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