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20.01.2008
More violence breaks out in
Kenya
Fierce fighting led to the deaths of 22 people and left 200 homes
burned in Kenya's troubled western Rift Valley, officials said.
Renewed ethnic fighting also broke out in Nairobi's Mathare slum,
where several homes were set ablaze during several hours of
running battles between Kikuyu and Luo ethnic groups, said
resident Boniface Shikami.
Shikami said Luos in his street had received notices warning them
to leave by nightfall or risk attack.
Filipe Rebeiro of aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors
Without Borders, said his organisation had treated 10 people for
machete and axe wounds.
In the Rift Valley, around the Catholic Kipkelion Monastery about
190 miles north-west of Nairobi, Kalenjin people native to the
area fought Kisii and Kikuyu settlers with machetes, swords and
bows and arrows. The Kalenjin generally support the opposition
party.
A local reporter at the scene saw 17 people who had died from
machete and arrow wounds and five shot by police, who appeared to
have quelled the violence but were still recovering bodies.
The death toll also was confirmed by district administrator Aden
Alhake
Edward Ndirangu, who said two of his houses were razed, was
searching for his wife and three children. "I am not sure about
their safety. ... We fled as they were looting and torched my
homes," he said.
He was among 2,500 Kikuyus and Kisii who have sought refuge at
three schools and the monastery, which was being protected by
police.
On Saturday, Kenya's opposition party, determined to bring down
President Mwai Kibaki's government, called for another day of "peaceful
rallies" across Kenya in defiance of a ban and despite the deaths
of at least 24 people in last week's demonstrations, with all but
seven deaths blamed on police.
Copyright © 2008 The Press Association
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