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Kenya’s main opposition coalition said yesterday it would suspend its weekly protests against the election commission to give calls for dialogue a chance.

Three people were killed on Monday in clashes between demonstrators and police in Nairobi and other cities during rallies against the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) led by opposition leader Raila Odinga’s CORD coalition. Clashes also flared during three other protests.

The next presidential and parliamentary polls in Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, are not due until August 2017 but politicians are already trying to galvanize supporters in a country prone to political strife. Violence erupted after the 2007 vote and the opposition disputed the outcome in 2013.

The opposition accuses the IEBC of bias and wants its commissioners to be replaced. IEBC members dismiss the charges, while the government has accused the opposition of criticising the IEBC because they cannot win via the ballot box.

On Tuesday, U.S., British and other Western ambassadors called for talks to resolve the issue.

“CORD has resolved to temporarily suspend demonstrations that were scheduled for next Monday May, 30, 2016,  to give dialogue and peace a chance,” an opposition statement said.

The suspension of the protests, which have been staged each Monday since April 25 bar one, would expire on June 5 if the ruling Jubilee coalition does not agree to talks, CORD said.

The government says any changes must be pursued within the provisions of the constitution, which could include a petition to parliament.

However, parliament is dominated by allies of President Uhuru Kenyatta and a previous bid was thrown out. “The combustible mixture of opposition protests and police brutality poses a risk of rising tensions ahead of, and potentially after, the 2017 ballot,” said Philip Walker, regional Africa editor for the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s military said yesterday it had killed 21 al Shabaab fighters in Somalia where its troops are trying to defeat the militant Islamist group that has often struck civilian targets inside Kenya.

Kenyan troops, which are in Somalia as part of an African Union (AU) deployment, struck a group of al Shabaab fighters in the west of the country, near the Kenyan border, David Obonyo, spokesman for Kenya Defence Forces, said.

Al Shabaab spokesman Abdiasis abu Musab said its fighters had killed five soldiers, wounded eight and burnt one military vehicle in the fighting.

The reports could not be independently verified.Obonyo said the Kenyan troops suffered no casualties.

Al Shabaab, a hardline Islamist group, ruled large parts of Somalia until 2011, when it was driven out of Mogadishu by AU and Somali troops. It still controls some rural areas and carries out frequent attacks in the capital and other areas in its attempt to dislodge the Western-backed government. — AP