At least 10 Kenyans killed in reprisal raid
2013-01-10 10:26
Nairobi - At least 10 people were killed and several wounded
in a retaliatory dawn raid on Thursday in the Tana River delta region of
southeast Kenya, the latest violence to flare up in an area where scores died
in clashes last year, Kenya Red Cross said.
"There are 10 dead and two critically wounded, with
gunshot wounds, machete cuts and burns," local Red Cross official Caleb
Kilunde told AFP.
The attack came a day after nine were killed in a raid.
Violence in the region first erupted in August, pitting the
Pokomo farming community against their Orma pastoralist neighbours and leading
to a series of vicious reprisal killings and attacks that left more than 150
people dead.
The repeated outbreaks of violence also raises concerns over
security and a lack of police capacity in volatile areas ahead of elections due
on 4 March, with police investigating local politicians for alleged involvement
in the unrest.
Regional police chief Aggrey Adoli confirmed the renewed
violence, admitting that there was "a problem in the area", and that
tensions were high.
Thursday's attacks on the Pokomo village of Kibusu, which
also left 19 homes burnt, follows a dawn attack on Wednesday by over 100
raiders on the Orma village of Nduru, in which nine people died.
The two villages are approximately 20km from each other,
with Kibusu lying just 5km from a police road block.
Grazing rights
Large numbers of security forces were deployed in the region
following attacks last year, but the clashes have still continued.
The two communities have clashed in the past, violence that
has often been attributed to disputes over water and grazing rights.
But the scale and intensity of recent killings - with women
and children hacked to death or torched in their huts - have shocked many, with
some locals accusing politicians of fuelling the attacks.
In December at least 45 people were killed in one attack.
The upcoming 4 March elections are for the presidency and
parliament, as well as for regional gubernatorial posts and local councils. The
run-up to the vote has been marked by renewed tensions both at the national
political and grassroots levels.
Elections five years ago descended into deadly post-poll
killings that shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability, with
at least 1 100 people killed and more than 600 000 displaced.
