TIMELINE - Kenya in crisis after disputed elections

(Reuters) - Kenyan police battled hundreds of opposition protesters on Wednesday, killing two, as the opposition defied a ban on rallies against President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election, witnesses said.

Here is a chronology of the crisis:

December 27 - Voters elect a new president and parliament. Most opinion polls put Kibaki's opposition rival Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement in the lead.

December 30 - The Electoral Commission of Kenya declares Kibaki winner of the election and he is hurriedly sworn in.

December 31 - The government floods the streets with security forces and maintains a ban on live TV broadcasts after riots convulse the nation.

January 1 - A mob torches a church, killing about 30 villagers.

January 2 - Kibaki's government accuses Odinga's backers of "ethnic cleansing" as the death toll from tribal violence rises.

January 3 - Attorney General Amos Wako calls for an independent investigation into the election.

-- South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu begins to try to mediate.