News, Articles & Reviews

NAKURU, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan police battled on Saturday to halt clashes between tribal gangs wielding machetes, spears and bows and arrows that have killed at least 27 people in the western town of Nakuru since Thursday, witnesses said.

Burnt bodies piled up and gunshots rang out in the Rift Valley provincial capital, which had previously been spared the chaos that has killed some 700 people across Kenya since the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki in December.

What began as a political stand-off has evolved into a settling of scores between rival tribes in the east African nation, one of the continent's most promising economies, whose peaceful image has been shattered by the bloodshed.

"There is nothing we can do. All those who are fanning the violence are staying comfortably in their luxury homes while we burn," said Nakuru resident Urunga Maina, who rushed his nephew to hospital after he was hacked by a machete-wielding mob.

"We are being used as sacrificial lambs," Maina told Reuters. "What matters is that the politicians take what they want. They don't care about the wananchi (ordinary people)."

The fighting has prompted the first army deployment since Kenya's crisis erupted and undermined hopes of a solution after Kibaki met his rival Raila Odinga on Thursday in their first talks since the troubles began. Odinga says the vote was rigged.

The latest clashes pitted members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe against Luos and Kalenjins who backed Odinga -- and looked to have largely caught the security forces in Nakuru unawares.

More than 100 wounded were admitted at the hospital. One man had an arrow lodged in his head. A doctor there said he had recorded nine bodies, all with deep machete wounds.

CHARRED BODIES

At the Nakuru morgue, relatives wept as police unloaded another 16 charred corpses from a truck. Two more people were stoned to death by gangs at the bus station.

"We've taken the bodies and chased the thugs from here," said Ephantus Kiura, Rift Valley assistant police commissioner, after officers fired shots to disperse people from the scene.

The authorities had imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew to try to contain pitched battles between tribal gangs, but hostile youths armed with crude weapons set up multiple roadblocks around town.

Elsewhere in the Rift Valley, police said on Saturday that two men were hacked to death overnight in Naivasha.

Benson Waliaula, 36, a security guard at a bank in the town, said he saw Kibaki supporters chase down one man and kill him.

"They tore his clothes off first then killed him with blows of a panga (machete). It took him some time to die. The police were just watching. There was nothing they could do," he said.

Witnesses said the Nakuru police mostly stayed in their stations on Friday, apparently unsure how to contain the chaos.

Morris Ouma, a 25-year-old trader, told Reuters he had taken part in the fighting. "I didn't feel good about it, but they are killing our people. What shall we do?" he asked.

The latest wave of violence followed the first direct discussions between Kibaki and Odinga since the troubles began, talks brokered by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who flew to another restive Rift Valley town, Molo, on Saturday.

"It may have been triggered by the electoral result, but it has evolved into something else where there is gross and systematic abuse of the rights of citizens ... and certain groups have been targeted," Annan said. "The government will have to do whatever it can to increase security."

Thursday's meeting between the two rivals had raised hopes of an end to turmoil that has forced 250,000 from their homes.

But they were dashed when Odinga's party angrily rejected Kibaki's description of himself as "duly elected" leader.

Source

Silahkan Beri Komentar Anda Mengenai Berita/Artikel Ini.