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22 killed in Kenya riots

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Published on Wednesday, 06 February 2008 01:49
Twenty-two people were killed in fresh ethnic clashes and a police crackdown in western Kenya, a day after the feuding political sides agreed to a framework to try to end weeks of violence.

"Eight people were killed in a tea plantation (near the Kericho township) and another three in Ainamoi township. Four people were killed in the Nyamira-Sotik border region in the west of the country," said a police commander.

Seven were killed in Kapsoit area.

Huge flames soared over slum dwellings belonging to members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe in the Rift Valley town of Kericho.

Near the town of Eldoret, a mob surrounded the Great Harvest Evangelical Church, where two people were sheltering, and burned it to the ground.

A witness said those inside managed to escape unharmed.

The nephew of the owner who had fled, Peter Ndungu, said it was because his aunt was from the Kikuyu tribe.

West of Kericho, clashes broke out between gangs from the Kisii and Kalenjin tribes.

Far from the violence, in neighbouring Ethiopia, Kibaki told leaders at an African summit that "the security situation in the country is under control."

Former UN head Kofi Annan said he had suggested to Kibaki that "a preventative deployment of the military may be necessary. Everyone would have to admit that the police are a bit over-stretched."

Annan brokered a deal between Kenya's rival parties on Friday to take immediate steps to end post-election violence which has killed 900 people and displaced more than a quarter of a million.

But the party leaders - Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga - remain at loggerheads, with Kibaki repeating that he had been elected by a majority of Kenyans in a December 27 poll and saying the dispute must be settled by Kenya's courts.

Odinga says he would not get a fair hearing in court.

Odinga added his Orange Democratic Movement "cannot in any way be held responsible for what is happening in the country," he added. "He (Kibaki) is trying to cover up the ethnic cleansing that is occurring in his own backyard in central Kenya.".