By Xinhua
Nairobi : Kenyan authorities said Sunday a spate of violent protests which marked the better part of last week, following the disputed presidential elections, is subsiding.
The country’s police chief, Maj.Gen Ali Mohamed Hussein, said the security situation in Kenya was returning to normal after week-long political unrest.
“The situation in the country is getting back to normal,” Hussein said in a statement issued in the Kenyan capital.
Hussein said his security forces have arrested 1,068 people since Kibaki was declared winner of Dec 27 polls. Among them, 451 have been charged by court.
“Those who were arraigned in court were charged with the offenses of arson, unlawful assembly, conveying suspected stolen goods, handling stolen goods, incitement to violence, robbery with violence, shop-breaking and murder,” he said.
The east African nation has been gripped by ethnic unrest, which began after Raila Odinga, who lost the presidential poll, accused incumbent president Kibaki of rigging last week’s elections. Post-election violence has claimed 350 lives in the country and at least a quarter of a million people have been displaced.
Kibaki has said he may form a national unity government, but only if the current unrest ends. Leaders of Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party have said they would accept international mediation to settle the current impasse.
International observers have described last week’s vote as seriously flawed. Odinga’s ODM opposition party has called for new elections. The government said it would accept the proposition, but only if a court orders a new vote.