Eight burned alive as Kenya fatalities soar

Published on Sunday 27 January 2008 21:23

ETHNIC clashes killed at least 19 people in Kenya's Rift Valley yesterday, overshadowing a meeting between former UN chief Kofi Annan and opposition leader Raila Odinga to try to resolve a month-long crisis.

Naivasha District Commissioner Katee Mwanza said eight people were burned and 11 others hacked to death, the latest victims of violence which has killed nearly 800 people since a disputed election on 27 December.

The running battles between members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe and rival Luos and Kalenjins, who back Mr Odinga, threatened to undermine mediation by Mr Annan, who called on both parties yesterday to name four officials for further talks.

Mr Odinga says Mr Kibaki rigged the 27 December polls while Mr Kibaki says he is the duly elected president.

Mr Odinga blamed the government for trying to divert attention away from the electoral dispute and put the death toll in Naivasha higher, saying 30 people had been burned to death.

"What is now emerging is that criminal gangs, on a killing spree, working under police protection, are part of a well orchestrated plan of terror to spread and escalate the levels of violence," Mr Odinga said.

Two truckloads of soldiers were deployed as sporadic gunfire rang out and smoke poured from torched homes and vehicles. Barricades blocked Kenya's main western highway outside the town and police turned back cars heading towards the area.

Shooting continued late into the day. Kenya's Red Cross said one house where people had sought refuge was torched but said a body count would only be completed in daylight today.

In a nearby home, a toddler on a chair wailed as the body of its mother lay in a pool of blood on the floor below.

"It is as if every tribe is against us, and no-one is protecting us," said Dominic Karanja, a Kikuyu watching troops dismantle roadblocks that he had helped build.

The sudden slide of Naivasha and another previously quiet tourist town, Nakuru, into pitched tribal battles has deepened growing anxiety since the vote cast the country into chaos.

"Let us not kid ourselves and think that this is an electoral problem. It's much broader and much deeper," Mr Annan said after visiting parts of the Rift Valley on Saturday.

A quarter of a million people have been forced from their homes by the unrest, which has shattered the east African nation's image of stability and damaged one of the continent's most promising economies.