Kenya opposition says will keep up pressure with strikes, economic boycotts

The United States also blamed Kibaki and Odinga for the unrest.

"There are clashes because of the political deadlock," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, adding it was beyond time for the two to reach a political accommodation.

In Kisumu, an opposition stronghold 300 kilometers (185 miles) from Nairobi, a morgue attendant said two bodies with bullet wounds were brought in Thursday, including a woman who witnesses said was shot by a bullet that pierced the corrugated iron wall of her home as she ate lunch. They showed a reporter the bullet hole.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said police shot and killed two "criminal" protesters elsewhere on Thursday. He said one was in a group of about 50 young men who blocked a convoy of 42 petroleum tankers on the highway to neighboring Uganda and tried to set them ablaze. The other killed was in "a group of criminals" who fired at police in Nairobi's Mathare slum, Kiraithe said.

Another man, shot through the neck, died in front of a reporter at Nairobi's Masaba Hospital. No one knew his name.

"When will this end?" asked Alfrank Okoth as he nursed a bullet wound to the chest at the hospital. The 28-year-old said he was shot by police at the gate of his house in Nairobi's biggest slum, Kibera.

Three others with bullet wounds were admitted, including a pastor, Francis Ivayo. He said he was shielding a group of children near his church in Kibera when police fired from a train going through the slum, hitting him in the lower back.

Opposition leader Odinga accused the police of being "on a killing spree." Kiraithe denied that.

Kiraithe also disparaged as "propaganda" some footage aired on local TV that showed police on Wednesday shooting an unarmed protester who was pulling faces at them, and then kicking his body.

In Mathare on Thursday, a group of men chased police, hurling chunks of cement and brandishing machetes. The officers fired live rounds in the air and tear gas at a group of already choking and retching women and children trying to dip their faces in bowls of washing water. Medics reported four people shot and two injured in other attacks in the slum.

In western Eldoret city, police tear gassed and clubbed 10 people eating lunch at the gate of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, said Tony Kirwa, a spokesman for the hospital. He said tear gas landed in the hospital's accident and emergency section, an open area near the entrance.

At the European Parliament, legislators called for new elections in Kenya if a "credible and fair recount" of votes proves impossible and a "freezing of all further budgetary support" to the East African nation.

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