At least 13 killed in day of Kenya protests

By Nick Tattersall and Barry Moody

NAIROBI (Reuters) - At least 13 people were killed in Kenya on Friday when police opened fire in a Nairobi slum and ethnic groups clashed during protests against the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki.

The worst bloodshed was in the huge Kibera shanty town, an opposition stronghold, where at least seven people were killed and a dozen wounded by police automatic gunfire. International medical charity MSF called it a "massacre".

Police also opened fire and lobbed tear gas in the port of Mombasa, where one person was killed in protests after Friday Muslim prayers, and the southern town of Narok.

Friday's deaths were the worst toll from three days of protests called by opposition leader Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) against Kibaki's re-election.

At least 21 people have been killed in the demonstrations, which were due to end on Friday. About 650 people have been killed since the disputed December 27 election.

The opposition and human rights groups accuse the police of using excessive force and firing indiscriminately at unarmed protesters. Police say they only shoot at rioters and looters.

"By firing live ammunition into crowds, the police have far exceeded what is acceptable use of force," said Erwin van der Borght, head of Amnesty International's Africa programme.

Reuters journalists counted seven bodies from the Kibera shooting, including a man with the back of his head blown off and 15-year-old girl, Rosina Otieno. Both were carried to the nearby Masaba hospital morgue in a white pickup truck.