Kenyan deaths rise to 612

NAIROBI, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Kenya's feuding parties prepared on Monday for fresh fighting in parliament and on the streets despite another international push to mediate a post-election crisis that has now killed at least 612 people.
But the priority for many in the east African nation was getting millions of children back to school after a week's delay following the turmoil caused by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election last month.

"Life has to go on," said Esther Muhito, preparing her children for classes in Molo, a town in the Rift Valley where ethnic clashes have killed scores. In some camps housing refugees, volunteers were setting up temporary classrooms.
Scores of others, however, were still fleeing the same tea-growing area, fearful the opposition's call for three days of nationwide protests starting on Wednesday would stoke more bloodshed.
Police have banned the rallies.
The crisis has dented Kenya's democratic credentials and resurgent economy, hit supplies to east and central African neighbours, and rattled Western donors.
Rachel Arungah, chairwoman of the government's Humanitarian Services Committee, told Reuters the death toll stood at 612 on Monday. But local media said it was higher, at 693.
Most of the deaths have come from fighting between rival ethnic communities, clashes between police and protesters, as well as looting and mob violence.
The number of refugees had dropped, as some people return to their homes, to 199,204, Arungah added.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was due in Kenya on Tuesday or Wednesday as the head of an "Eminent Africans" group to kickstart dialogue between Kibaki and opposition rival Raila Odinga, who have not met since the Dec. 27 vote.
African Union head John Kufuor, and other international figures, including Washington's top diplomat for Africa Jendayi Frazer, failed last week to bring the sides together.
"NO BUSINESS AS USUAL"
Kibaki has entrenched his position by naming half a cabinet, convening parliament and continuing with state functions.
But the opposition has more seats in the new assembly and Tuesday's opening session promises to be a bruising affair. "It will be a battleground where all manner of wars are going to be fought," analyst Mutakha Kangu told Reuters.
Opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) legislators are threatening to sit on government seats they say are rightfully theirs. The first business will be to name a new speaker.
At the weekend, the European Union and United States said there could be "no business as usual" with Nairobi unless a political compromise was agreed that restored stability.
One of Kibaki's hardline allies, Roads and Public Works Minister John Michuki, was quoted as saying the government may sever ties with countries that are piling on the pressure.
"We are just turning a blind eye, but we can just one day wake up and tell them to leave the country," he was reported as saying in the Daily Nation newspaper.
"We do not need any foreigners to tell us what to do."
A government spokesman said Kibaki's administration had not asked anyone to mediate its affairs. He said Kenya, as a sovereign state, should be "treated with the same respect shown to other stable democracies".
On German radio Deutschland Funk, Odinga urged the world to express its disapproval of Kibaki.
"Robert Mugabe has been tolerated for too long in Zimbabwe. We should not create another Mugabe with the name Kibaki," he said. "I think the international community has a duty to send a signal that what (Kibaki) is doing will not be tolerated."
Kibaki, 76, has said he is prepared to speak to Odinga, 63, about a possible power-sharing arrangement. But the former ally, who split with Kibaki in 2005, says he will only meet through an international mediator and wants the election re-run.
ODM on Monday accused Uganda -- one of four African nations to recognise Kibaki's win along with Swaziland, Morocco and Somalia -- of sending troops across the border to help Kenyan security forces. Kenyan police denied that.

By Katie Nguyen and Andrew Cawthorne (Additional reporting by Bryson Hull, Wangui Kanina, Tim Cocks; Madeleine Chambers in Berlin, editing by Mary Gabriel)  

Kenya braces for tough week, deaths rise to 612 | International | Reuters