Nairobi - Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for second, five-year term on Tuesday, ending months of political turmoil in the east African nation.
Kenyatta won a repeat presidential election on October 26 after opposition leader Raila Odinga boycotted the vote, citing concerns over fairness. Police prevented opposition leaders from holding a rival gathering on Tuesday.
African heads of state arrived for President Uhuru Kenyatta's inauguration on Tuesday as riot police sealed off an area where the opposition planned a rival gathering and teargassed people trying to approach it.
The Supreme Court nullified the first presidential election, in August, over irregularities.
The extended election season has divided Kenya, a Western ally in a volatile region, and blunted growth in East Africa's richest economy.
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On Tuesday, a military band in gold and blue uniforms serenaded heads of state from Somalia, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Zambia and other nations as they arrived at the stadium where the ceremony will take place.
Hours before the inauguration was due to start, 60 000 Kenyatta supporters, many clad in the red and yellow Jubilee party colours and carrying Kenyan flags, filled the stadium benches.
Others, chafing at being kept outside, overwhelmed police and streamed in. Officers were forced to fire teargas to control them.
Supporters of Kenyatta - who won with 98 percent of the vote after Odinga's boycott - are urging the opposition to engage in talks and move on.
"I’m sure Uhuru will be able to bring people together and unite them so we can all work for the country," said Eunice Jerobon, a trader who travelled overnight from the Rift Valley town of Kapsabet for the inauguration, before the disturbance.
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But Odinga supporters say such talk of unity is tantamount to surrender. They accuse the ruling party of stealing the election, rampant corruption, directing abuse by the security forces and neglecting vast swathes of the country, including Odinga's heartland in the west.
"A return to the political backwardness of our past is more than unacceptable. It is intolerable ... This divide cannot be bridged by dialogue and compromise," Odinga's National Super Alliance opposition alliance said in a statement.
The opposition planned to hold a prayer meeting in the capital on Tuesday, saying it wanted to commemorate the lives of Odinga supporters killed during confrontations with the security forces over the election period.
More than 70 people have been killed in political violence this election season, mostly by the police.
Police began firing teargas in nearby residential areas two hours before the rally was due to start, apparently attempting to prevent opposition supporters from gathering.
Several roads were blocked by burning tyres, rocks, glass and uprooted billboards. Police shot in the air to disperse anyone trying to gather.