Emergency.Blog

KENYA: More Than 300 Killed, Country on Verge of Tribal War?

January 2, 2008

50 die in blazing church as spectre of tribal war looms

NAIROBI, KENYA: A mob set fire to a church where dozens of people had sought refuge from violence in Kenya yesterday, killing at least 50 and raising new fears that one of Africa's most stable countries would collapse into a bloody tribal war.

The dead were mostly of the Kikuyu tribe, which overwhelmingly backed President Kibaki's bid for a second term in last Thursday's election. Mr. Kibaki defeated his rival, Raila Odinga, by just 230,000 votes and Mr. Odinga's supporters, who are mostly ethnic Luo, believe that the election was "stolen".

The admission last night by Samuel Kivuitu, the head of Kenya's Electoral Commission, that he was pressured by Mr. Kibaki's Party of National Unity not to hold an inquiry into the results appeared to support the claim. European envoys and the state-run Human Rights Commission had called for an investigation.

More than 300 people have been killed in Kenya since the election, and last night there was no sign that security forces were willing, or able, to bring the rampaging mobs under control. Gangs of machete-wielding men set up roadblocks along the main road out of Nairobi to the west, pulling Kikuyus from their cars.

The Kenyan Red Cross said that 70,000 people had fled the violence, and some Kikuyus had reportedly crossed into Uganda for safety. "This is a national disaster," said Abbas Gullet, the agency's secretary-general...

Article continues at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article3118970.ece