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Kenya gangs face off in tribal
violence
CNN - 28.01.2008
NAIVASHA, Kenya - Hundreds of people from rival tribes confronted
each other on a main road in Naivasha Monday as tensions remained
high in the Rift Valley town following a weekend of ethnic
violence.
Gangs brandishing machetes, clubs and rocks only retreated when a
handful of police between them fired live bullets into the air.
Trouble also erupted Monday in another western town, Kisumu, where
armed mobs set some houses ablaze, prompting police to open fire.
A morgue attendant said the body of a man shot in the back of the
head was brought in.
Mobs set buses ablaze at the main downtown bus station, and one
Kikuyu driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to
witness Lillian Ocho.
Ethnic fighting engulfed Kenya's western Rift Valley over the
weekend as witnesses and Red Cross officials reported brutal
attacks by members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe on
other ethnic groups.
The violence spread to Naivasha on Sunday, where the Red Cross
said there were reports of people being burned alive in their
homes. Kenya's main opposition party and the Red Cross said as
many as 30 people were killed.
Ethnic killings continued in the nearby Rift Valley town of Nakuru,
where another 47 people have died since the latest wave of
violence began on Thursday, according to the opposition Orange
Democratic Movement.
The opposition death toll is much higher than police figures,
which do not include Sunday's violence in Naivasha. Police say 31
people have died in the Rift Valley region since last Thursday.
Watch CNN's Zain Verjee report on the violence »
In a statement released Sunday, ODM leader Raila Odinga condemned
reports of 30 people being burned alive in their Naivasha homes
and blamed the Kibaki government for fomenting the violence in the
region.
"I condemn this murderous and evil act in the strongest terms
possible," he said.
"What is now emerging is that criminal gangs, in a killing spree,
working under police protection, are part of a well-orchestrated
plan of terror."
It is a dramatic turn of events, considering Odinga was shaking
Kibaki's hand three days ago after the two met under the auspices
of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Many had hoped Thursday's meeting, arranged by Annan who is
mediating peace efforts, would bring an end to the outbreak of
bloody ethnic battles that followed last month's contested
presidential vote.
But it seems to have had the opposite effect.
Odinga blamed Kibaki's government for orchestrating the Rift
Valley violence "to try to influence mediation efforts" and "to
divert (attention) from election malpractice to security and
violence."
"After stealing the elections from Kenyans, Kibaki now wishes to
deny them justice and peace," Odinga said.
A Red Cross official said the agency had received reports of a
non-Kikuyu family burned to death in their house in Naivasha.
Television footage showed a man in the back of a police vehicle
covered in blood with a large machete wound on the side of his
head. Kenyan police dispersed large gangs and cleared rocks
littering the streets of the lakeside town, which is dominated by
Kikuyu.
Tree branches, heavy boulders and oil drums littered the streets
of Naivasha's town center as the Kikuyu gangs erected temporary
road blocks, CNN correspondent Zain Verjee reported. She said the
atmosphere was tense as the gangs checked cars to identify rival
tribes.
Verjee said there was a heavy police presence on the outskirts of
the town. Some shops remained open but the town center was almost
deserted except for the roaming gangs.
It was a similar situation in Nakuru on Sunday, where ODM member
the Rev. Mike Brawan said members of the Kikuyu tribe "are
flushing out the non-Kikuyus from their houses."
He said Kikuyus are going house-to-house, attacking civilians who
are not members of the tribe, as well as looting and burning their
property. Police, he said, "are not doing much."
Brawan said he saw homes burned and people hacked to death in the
violence.
"They just die with a lot of pain," he said.
It is estimated -- depending on the source -- that between 500 and
1,000 people have been killed in the violence that followed the
December 27 election in which Kibaki kept his post.
Odinga, the OMD candidate for president, and his supporters claim
the election was rigged. International observers noted some
irregularities in the voting.
Fighting, centered in western Kenya and Nairobi's slums, broke out
between tribes loyal to Kibaki and Odinga after Kibaki was
declared the winner of recent elections.
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