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More than 100 killed in latest
upsurge of Kenya violence
27.01.2008
AFP
NAIROBI (AFP) — Kofi Annan on Sunday pushed for peace and talks
between Kenya's feuding politicians as ethnic violence spread in
western regions where the death toll from the past three days
surpassed 100.
Nine people were killed as gangs of youths wreaked havoc in a slum
district of the lakeside town Naivasha, an AFP correspondent there
reported, raising the death toll in the western Rift Valley
province since Thursday to 1/16.
The former UN chief, on his sixth day in Kenya Sunday, met in
Nairobi with opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claims he was
robbed of victory in last month's presidential election, as police
gathered the charred and hacked remains of victims of the most
recent clashes in the west.
Musalia Mudavadi, from Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, said
progress had been made towards preparing talks with President Mwai
Kibaki, whose widely-contested re-election sparked the chaos.
"Our side and the other side will appoint three negotiators and an
additional person as a liaison person," Mudavadi told journalists.
More than 850 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally
of police and hospital figures, since the disputed December 27
election touched off a wave of deadly rioting and ethnic killings.
Some 260,000 people across the country have been forced to flee
their homes.
Latent ethnic and land disputes have fuelled revenge killings in
western Kenya between Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe and members of the Luo
and Kalenjin ethnic groups who supported Odinga.
Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows have led clashes
throughout the western Rift Valley.
Police confirmed that an unspecified number of people had died in
ethnic clashes between youths in Naivasha's Kabati slums Sunday.
"We have deaths," said local police commander Willy Lugusa.
An AFP correspondent there counted five charred bodies in houses,
three others that had been hacked to death, and said one policeman
had been accidentally shot dead by a colleague.
"It started when a group of about 100 youths divided into two
groups," the police commander said. "One group blocked the road
and started stoning motorists and another group attacked Kabati
slums."
In Nakuru Sunday, many residents complained that the police were
not doing enough to help them and said they were standing by as
machete-wielding youths prepared for more battles.
"The police came here and ordered us to surrender our arms but are
not doing anything to protect us. At the moment we are still
insecure," said 22-year-old Cosmas Makori, whose house was burnt
down in a Nakuru slum on Friday.
"The police shot my son as he was trying to rescue our belongings
from our burning house. They have followed us into our camp and
are harassing us saying that we are planning revenge attacks on
the Kalenjins," said a 69-year-old Kikuyu, Lucy Wanjiru, staying
in a displacement camp.
On Sunday, trucks piled with luggage were seen transporting
thousands of people who had fled their homes, and a new
displacement camp was set up in the town's biggest sports stadium.
An overnight curfew still held, police said.
"The curfew is still in place until the security reverts back to
normal," said Hassan Noor Hassan, Rift Valley provincial
commissioner.
On Saturday, Annan said that unrest set off by Kibaki's disputed
re-election last month had led to "gross and systematic" human
rights abuses and called for an investigation.
"Impunity cannot be allowed to stand," he said, after visiting the
violence-wracked Rift Valley with former Tanzanian president
Benjamin Mkapa and Graca Machel, wife of former South African
president Nelson Mandela.
Annan, who has said the team will not stay in Kenya for "for
months on end", on Thursday orchestrated a symbolic first meeting
between Kibaki and Odinga, who shook hands, called for peace and
hinted at a willingness to talk.
But the gesture, hailed internationally, was later undermined by
further squabbling, with both sides maintaining their hardline
positions.
The crisis has damaged the economy and shattered the east African
nation's image as a beacon of stability in the region.
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