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Rioters Tear Through Kenyan City
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: January 29, 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest city, burst into
flames again on Monday as thousands of rioters tore through the
streets, burned down stores, looted schools and vented their
outrage over a spate of ethnically-driven killings over the
weekend.
It seems that what started out last month as a political crisis
has increasingly turned into a violent ethnic one, fueled by
longstanding tensions over land, economic opportunity and access
to power. Kenya’s security forces seem to be struggling to keep it
from getting worse.
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The trouble in Kisumu began
at 8 a.m. on Monday when young men from the Luo ethnic group
set fire to a bus believed to be owned by Kikuyus, another
ethnic group. Witnesses said the passengers escaped and that
the Luos were exacting revenge for what happened the day
before when a mob of Kikuyus trapped 19 Luo people inside a
house in the town of Naivasha and burned them to death.
By 2 p.m. thousands of
rioters were sweeping across Kisumu, lighting enormous
bonfires and looting shops and even schools. Witnesses said
a mob cleaned out one primary school, taking desks, chairs,
books, doors and even windows. Kenyan television stations
showed dozens of terrified children running out of the
school, some of them holding each other’s hands, as the mob
closed in.
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Kisumu was about the last place in
Kenya that needed to be hit by riots. The city is a stronghold of
Kenya’s opposition movement and was gutted by furious mobs in late
December, when deeply flawed elections set off widespread riots.
“Things are really bad again,” said Jacob Otieno Obiero, a Kisumu
resident, on Monday afternoon. “There are fires everywhere.”
Police officers fired tear gas at
rioters, and residents said officers shot several people with
assault rifles, killing four. Witnesses said that gangs of Luos,
who make up the majority of Kisumu’s population, were prowling
certain neighborhoods looking for Kikuyus to kill. Many members of
the Luo and Kikuyu communities have been at each other’s throats
since Dec. 30, when Kenya’s election commission declared the
incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, the winner over Raila
Odinga, an opposition leader and a Luo. Western observers have
said that there were so many problems with the vote counting
process that it was impossible to tell who really won.
Since the election, more than 750 people have been killed and
300,000 displaced.
Much of Kenya is pulling apart along ethnic lines, and in many
areas the situation appears to be nothing short of ethnic
cleansing. In neighborhoods and towns that used to be mixed, the
ethnic group with the greatest numbers is driving out people who
belong to other ethnic groups. The result is one ethnically
homogeneous zone after another, often marked by blackened, empty
homes.
On Monday morning, Luos and Kikuyus faced off in Naivasha, with a
thin line of police separating hundreds of angry young men shaking
machetes, iron bars and splintery lengths of wood at each other.
It seemed that the police, in this case, were eventually able to
disperse the crowds before they killed anyone. Local news reports,
however, indicated that at least 15 people had been killed in
ethnic fighting in the Rift Valley since Sunday night.
Hussein Ali, Kenya’s police commander, told reporters on Monday
that his officers had arrested 159 people in Naivasha and Nakuru
“for possession of crude weapons and for suspected involvement in
the murders.” He also said 95 people were arrested in Nairobi, the
capital, but provided no details.
The most vicious clashes have been in the Rift Valley province,
home to several different ethnic groups, including the Luo, Kikuyu
and the Kalenjin. The area is better known for its expensive
lodges and priceless views but over the past month it has become a
battle zone.
Nairobi has been relatively calm this past week, but many Kenyans
fear that any multi-ethnic area could explode at moment’s notice.
That almost happened on Monday in Gilgil, a small town between
Naivasha and Nakuru. Residents said that hundreds of young Kikuyus
mobilized to drive out Gilgil’s small Luo community. Community
elders persuaded them to back down but only after many of the Luos
agreed to pack up their things and leave.
“In the absence of those people, nothing will happen,” said Moses
Gitongah, a Gilgil businessman and chairman of the town’s peace
committee. “But it’s very tense.”
Many Kenyans had hoped that an hourlong meeting and a quick
handshake last Thursday between Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga would
cool things down. But the convulsion of violence in the Rift
Valley has dimmed those hopes, and the two sides are still
negotiating over negotiating.
Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, has been
in Kenya for nearly a week trying to broker a political compromise.
On Monday, opposition leaders and government officials met
separately to discuss Mr. Annan’s proposed framework for talks,
which may begin later this week.
American officials seem to be increasingly concerned. Congressman
Donald Payne, the chairman of the House’s Africa subcommittee, is
backing a resolution that calls for the United States to apply
sanctions against Kenyan politicians “who refuse to engage in
meaningful dialogue to end the current crisis.”
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