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Fresh violence pushes Kenya
death toll past 800
Monday, January 28, 2008
CBC News
Clashes between machete-wielding mobs erupted in western Kenya on
Monday after dozens were killed in weekend violence that pushed
the estimated death toll since last month's disputed presidential
election to more than 800.
In the Rift Valley resort town of Naivasha, about 90 kilometres
northwest of Nairobi, hundreds of people from rival tribes
confronted one another on a main road.
The crowds retreated only when a handful of police between them
fired live bullets into the air, the Associated Press reported.
The fighting began after President Mwai Kibaki's Dec. 27
re-election, which opposition leader Raila Odinga and his
supporters say was rigged. International and local election
observers have said there were significant problems with the vote.
The violence has featured battles between armed police and
protesters in the western opposition heartland and in Nairobi's
slums, as well as politically motivated clashes between rival
ethnic groups.
Some 250,000 Kenyans have been forced from their homes out of fear
of targeted attacks from tribes aligned with Odinga's Luo ethnic
group and reprisal attacks from Kenya's influential Kikuyus.
Kibaki is a Kikuyu, which prompted mobs to target the president's
suspected supporters immediately after his Dec. 30 swearing-in
ceremony.
At least 22 people were killed in Naivasha over the weekend, said
district commissioner Katee Mwanza. Nineteen of them were Luos
whom a gang of Kikuyus chased through a slum and trapped in a
shanty that they set on fire, said police commander Grace Kakai.
The others were hacked to death with machetes, a local reporter
told the Associated Press.
Similar clashes were reported in Nakuru, the regional capital of
the Rift Valley, where an unnamed morgue worker said 55 bodies
were counted Sunday after battles between tribes broke out earlier
in the week.
National police commissioner Hussein Ali told reporters in Nairobi
that police had arrested 159 people in Nakuru and Naivasha "for
possession of crude weapons and for suspected involvement in the
murders." He also said 95 people were arrested in Nairobi, but
gave no details.
The deaths present new challenges to former UN secretary general
Kofi Annan, who is in Nairobi attempting to mediate a solution to
the political crisis.
Kibaki has said he is open to direct talks with Odinga, but that
his position as president is not negotiable. Odinga says Kibaki
must step down and only new elections will bring peace.
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