Three people were hacked to death in ethnic clashes in Nairobi slums, police said Monday, as mediators prepared a fresh bid to break the deadlock that followed President Mwai Kibaki's re-election. The three died in the capital's Huruma and Babadogo slums where feuding tribes clashed late into the night, bringing to 48 the number of deaths over the past six days.
Police said the fighting and revenge killings raged between members of pro-Kibaki tribes and those supporting opposition chief Raila Odinga, who claims he was robbed of victory in the December 27 presidential polls.
Several houses were razed as hundreds stampeded out of shantytowns that have been divided into tribal blocs.
Three days of opposition protests that began Wednesday provoked a fierce crackdown by anti-riot and paramilitary police, and some unarmed civilians were shot down in the capital and the western city of Kisumu.
The political rioting
"Police are doing everything to ensure that stability is maintained and we are urging members of the public to operate within the (boundaries of the) law," national police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told AFP.
Riot police continued to patrol major towns as well as the volatile rural areas across the country.
Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party over the weekend called for a fresh round of demonstrations on Thursday, but police have vowed to block them.
Alarmed by the stalemate, the Roman Catholic Church appealed to the feuding leaders to start talks and avert plunging the country, once seen as a bastion of stability in a restive region, into chaos.
"We are making a special appeal to our politicians: It is not by going to the streets that is going to solve the problems. If you respect your own dignity and identity, please come together and talk together," Cardinal John Njue said.
Odinga said on Sunday that he was open to dialogue as former United Nations chief Kofi Annan was set to arrive in Kenya Tuesday to push for a settlement between the feuding sides.
The government has rejected the term "mediation", insisting there is no crisis in the country, but has welcomed African leaders to facilitate dialogue.
Kibaki formed a panel headed by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka -- who finished third in the presidential poll -- to launch dialogue, but Odinga has rejected the initiative.
The ODM announced last week it would change tactics and launch a boycott of companies owned by Kibaki's allies.
But the government, in a statement published Monday, said the move was meant "to create poverty and destroy the livelihood of the very poor" and accused the opposition of incitement.
"The targeting of companies and directing of supporters to target and destroy specific companies or persons is a serious crime," the statement added.
The EU's development commissioner Louis Michel on Saturday met Odinga and Kibaki separately and insisted that a solution to the crisis could be found with "a little political will".
The violence that erupted when Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election on December 30 has killed at least 700 people and displaced a quarter of a million.
The disruption to transport services caused by nationwide violence as well as lasting business closures have dealt a blow to the country's economy, East Africa's largest.
Footage of people hacking each other to death, reports of police violence and people being burned alive in a church have dealt a huge blow to the tourism industry, Kenya's top source of foreign currencies.
The country is also a major trade hub for other nations in the region, some of which are landlocked and depend almost entirely on routes passing through Kenya for their imports.