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14 killed in Kenya clashes
AFP
Published: Jan 28, 2008
NAIROBI - Fourteen people were killed in clashes with police in
western towns in Kenya, police said today, amid a fresh wave of
ethnic violence set off by disputed presidential elections a month
ago.
"Eight of them were killed in Nakuru and five in Naivasha
overnight," said a police commander in Nairobi, requesting
anonymity. "Most of them were killed by police and they were
arsonists who were trying to set other people’s houses on fire,"
he added.
The police commander said earlier that another man was killed by a
stray bullet when security forces opened fire to disperse crowds
demonstrating in the western opposition bastion of Kisumu against
killings in other parts of Kenya.
More than 140 people have died in clashes across western Kenya in
the past four days, according to police.
Incidents were reported today in the town of Eldoret - a
flashpoint in the first round of clashes - and in the previously
unaffected lakeside town of Naivasha, where attackers burnt 14
people to death in an ethnic revenge attack yesterday.
The western town of Nakuru has seen dozens killed in bitter
clashes between gangs armed with machetes, metal bars, and bows
and arrows in recent days.
Violence first erupted across Kenya after disputed December 27
presidential elections, with political protests giving way to
tit-for-tat killings over long-running feuds between rival
communities.
Some 900 people have died since the widely-contested polls,
according to an AFP tally of police figures, and around a quarter
of a million have been displaced.
The violence has undermined the latest crisis mediation attempt
led by former United Nations (UN) secretary general Kofi Annan,
who has been in Kenya for almost a week.
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