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At least three killed in fresh
Kenya clashes
20 Jan 2008 10:31:55 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Tim Cocks and Nick Tattersall
NAIROBI, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Clashes between rival tribes in the
Kenyan capital killed at least three people on Sunday in a fresh
flare-up of ethnically-motivated violence after President Mwai
Kibaki's disputed re-election last month, witnesses said.
All of the bodies bore scars of machete attacks.
"I saw three people dead, killed by pangas (machetes), slashed on
the head, cuts on the back and a hand chopped off," Samuel Oduor,
22, a freelance cameraman, said. He had footage of one of the
bodies but police had collected the others, he said.
Other witnesses confirmed the death toll in clashes between youths
from Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group and the Luo tribe of opposition
challenger Raila Odinga.
They bring to at least 31 dead the toll from days of violence
since the opposition launched a three-day anti-government
demonstration on Wednesday. Many were killed by police opening
fire on protesters, others by ethnic gangs.
Harold Mukigi, a driver, said of one victim: "He was sliced with a
panga (machete) over the head. There was fighting through the
night." The other killings were reprisals, witnesses said.
Police were not available for comment but a Reuters reporter saw
one body and a severed hand where the clashes took place in
Nairobi's Haruna slum, whose name means "mercy" in Swahili.
Police were heavily deployed on Sunday in an effort to contain
further post-poll violence that has tarnished Kenya's image as a
stable country in a troubled region, hurt its democratic
credentials and damaged investor confidence.
More than 650 people have been killed since Kibaki was sworn into
office after a disputed Dec. 27 election the opposition says was
rigged and observers said was seriously flawed.
The opposition has called for more demonstrations on Thursday
despite the fact that police, under orders to crush rallies, have
shot dead scores of their supporters.
"It does not matter how long it takes. Ultimately, justice will
triumph," Odinga told a few hundred supporters at a church service
in Nairobi's Kibera slum on Sunday, where just outside lay the
ashen remains of days of flaming road blockades.
More ethnic clashes are expected.
"They are beating us. They want to chase us away. They are armed
with bows and arrows and they are killing our children," a visibly
angry 75-year-old Wangeci Mwangi said of the gangs raiding her
neighbourhood in Haruma.
Other parts of the country appeared quiet following sporadic
killings and lootings in flashpoints such as the western town of
Eldoret and the southern town of Narok on Friday and Saturday.
EU aid commissioner Louis Michel, who met Kibaki and Odinga on
Saturday, has urged both sides to meet and hold talks to resolve
their standoff and end the killing.
Human rights groups have been dismayed by what they say are
heavy-handed police tactics to stop opposition gatherings last
week, which included shooting some protestors as they tried to
flee.
The police are investigating television footage which shows police
shooting two demonstrators at close range. The opposition and
government accuse each other of genocide.
In the worst ethnic-based attack since the violence started,
around 30 people were locked in a church near Eldoret, in the Rift
Valley. A mob then torched it, burning them to death.#
(Additional reporting by Bosire
Nyairo, writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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