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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Fighting spreads in western Kenya |
| 2008-01-27 |
| At least nine people have been killed in western Kenya, reports say, in violence apparently linked to last month's disputed elections. The victims are said to have been beaten, hacked or burned to death by mobs in Naivasha. The town is about 60km (37 miles) south of Nakuru, also the scene of recent inter-ethnic fighting. Former UN chief Kofi Annan has been holding talks to try to end the month-long political deadlock in Kenya. He met opposition leader Raila Odinga in the capital, Nairobi, on Sunday, and called on the two rival parties to nominate officials for further talks. Mr Annan visited the violence-racked Rift Valley on Saturday, and later said he had seen tragic, heart-wrenching scenes, and "gross and systematic abuse of human rights". Mr Odinga accuses his rival, President Mwai Kibaki, of stealing December's presidential election. Unrest has left at least 750 people dead and about a quarter of a million homeless. Reports are unclear but at least nine people are said to have been hacked or clubbed to death as they tried to flee mobs with machetes. In some cases people were locked inside their homes, which the mobs then ignited with petrol. Police said they recovered several charred bodies. Police tried to disperse youths blocking the main road by firing over their heads. By Sunday afternoon the town was reported to be much calmer. The mobs appeared to from the Kikuyu tribe of President Kibaki, which bore the brunt of the violence that erupted after the election. "We have moved out to revenge the deaths of our brothers and sisters who have been killed, and nothing will stop us," said Anthony Mwangi, hefting a club in Naivasha. "For every one Kikuyu killed, we shall avenge their killing with three." Some of those fleeing the violence have taken shelter in some of the horticultural farms around Naivasha, on the main road between Nakuru and Nairobi, our correspondent says. The area's huge horticulture and flower-growing industry employs more than 20,000 people, and supplies a third of Europe's cut flowers. Further north, Kenya's fourth biggest city Nakuru has also been the scene of deadly violence between rival Luo and Kikuyu communities. Dozens of people are feared to have died since Thursday and scores of people were injured in clashes between fighters armed with machetes, spears and bows and arrows. |
| Posted by:lotp |