| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
NAKURU, Kenya : Ethnic clashes killed at least 15 people in Kenya's western Rift Valley, police said Friday, dashing hopes of an end to weeks of unrest sparked by disputed presidential polls.
Violence exploded in the province's main town of Nakuru, where eight people were killed Friday and Kenyan authorities imposed a night-time curfew -- only the second since the start of the crisis last month.
"We have imposed a 7:00 pm to 7:00 am curfew to help manage the situation in Nakuru," Rift Valley Police commander Everette Wasige told AFP, as thick plumes of smoke rose above the deserted town and its slums, and thousands fled their homes.
In Nairobi, former UN chief Kofi Annan met election officials and religious leaders a day after organising a symbolic first meeting between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claims he was robbed of the presidency.
The gesture, later undermined by further squabbling, followed weeks of violence set off by the December 27 election, mainly in Nairobi slums and the country's west, that has killed close to 800 people and displaced around 260,000 others.
The latest fatalities were hacked or shot to death in the nearby Rift Valley towns of Molo and Nakuru, where arsonists razed scores of houses overnight.
"Eight more have been killed in Nakuru," a police commander told AFP on Friday.
"Five people have been hacked to death in Molo and Nakuru (where) six others were slashed and wounded, including a police officer," he said earlier, adding that two others had been shot dead in Molo.
An AFP correspondent said fighting in Nakuru pitted rival ethnic groups against each other armed with machetes and metal bars.
Police helicopters flew over the deserted town Friday afternoon, as paramilitary police patrolled on the ground and army trucks drove towards the main road to Nairobi, where gangs had cut down whole trees to use as roadblocks.
Disputes in the area stem from the 1960s when Kikuyus -- Kibaki's ethnic group -- acquired land but displaced the Kalenjin, leaving a grievance that has remained unresolved.
The Kalenjin mainly supported Odinga, and have taken advantage of the post-poll turmoil to chase other ethnic groups.
"The spiral effect of counter-attack and reprisals is getting out of hand in this area of the Rift Valley and urgent measures need to be put in place to resolve this," Abbas Gullet, secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross warned at a news conference in Nairobi.
Some 30,000 to 40,000 have been displaced in Molo since the elections, Gullet said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had sent medical supplies to Nakuru provincial hospital, where some 100 wounded people had been taken for treatment.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused opposition officials of inciting ethnically-motivated attacks in the area, especially against Kikuyus. The opposition immediately rejected the claims.
In a sign of continued political deadlock, Odinga on Friday urged an upcoming African Union summit to refrain from endorsing Kibaki's reelection.
"We don't think that the AU should recognise a government that is illegitimate. It would be setting a very bad precedent, that the AU is condoning the rigging of elections in Africa," Odinga told reporters.
Kibaki has insisted on direct talks with Odinga, who has rejected calls for dialogue without the presence of an international mediator.
Annan had described Thursday's meeting between Kibaki and Odinga as "a very encouraging development" in steps towards dialogue.
However, Kibaki's comment Thursday that he had been sworn in as a "duly elected president" angered Odinga's opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party.
An ODM official said Kibaki had upset the first move towards direct talks.
"Talks are unlikely because by assuming he is still president, he has changed the rules of the game (talks)," Omingo Magara told AFP.
On Kibaki's side, government spokesman Alfred Mutua responded that no directions for dialogue had yet been agreed upon.
"There are no rules for talks in the first place," Mutua said.
- AFP /ls
|
