A second Kenyan opposition lawmaker was shot dead on Thursday, and riots immediately exploded in opposition strongholds, putting the country increasingly on edge. The lawmaker, David Kimutai Too, a former teacher from the volatile Rift Valley, was gunned down by a policeman in Eldoret. Kenyan government officials were quick to say the killing was a “crime of passion” connected to a love triangle. Opposition leaders called it an assassination. “How can police call this an ordinary murder before any investigations?” said William Ruto, an opposition leader. “There is nothing ordinary about having two members of Parliament killed like this.”
Political negotiations brokered by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, were halted on Thursday because of the shooting, and the current secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said he would travel to Nairobi on Friday to address the crisis.