Kenya cops kill 4 in mob unrest

2008-02-01 11:00

Eldoret - Kenyan police killed four people in looting mobs who set scores of houses and businesses ablaze in a western Kenyan town, said an official on Friday, in clashes sparked by a policeman's killing of an opposition parliamentarian.

The shooting of David Kimutai Too on Thursday interrupted the start of talks to help resolve the month-long post-election crisis that had killed more than 800 people and forced 300 000 from their homes.

Talks, being mediated by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, resume on Friday. Annan's successor, Ban Ki-Moon, arrived in Nairobi for a meeting with opposition leader Raila Odinga, who accused President Mwai Kibaki of stealing elections held in late December.

Police said Too's killing was a crime of passion: He was shot by a traffic police officer, who discovered the MP was having an affair with his girlfriend. A woman shot in the same attack also died.

MP 'feared for his safety'

Too was the second anti-government legislator killed in a week; opposition politicians said both were victims of assassination plots. A Too family spokesperson accused the police of a cover-up, saying the MP was not involved with the woman and had feared for his safety.

The spokesperson, Julius Langat, said the woman who was killed was a police officer and that Too, a former teacher and father of two, had gone to her to seek protection for his family.

In Eldoret, where Too was shot, 21 people were injured in clashes after the killing, including 13 who were shot, of whom one later died.

Hundreds of young men blocked roads with burning tires and rocks on Friday in Kericho town, near Too's constituency. "Kibaki must go!" they chanted.

Smoke columns rose from smouldering ashes in what remained of the city's poor Nwagocho and Baraka housing estates.

Ethnic violence

There, police said they shot and killed four people and injured five on Thursday evening and Friday morning.

"Those who were shot and killed were participating in looting properties and torching residential houses and business buildings," said John Otieno, in charge of criminal investigations there.

One of the wounded at the hospital, Elizabeth Kones, said she was running from her burning home when she was hit. Her hand was broken.

Kenya had been embroiled in ethnic violence since Kibaki was re-elected in the election on December 27 and Odinga, head of Too's party, rejected the result, saying the vote had been rigged.

Much of the bloodshed had pitted other tribes, including Odinga's Luo, against Kibaki's Kikuyu people.

Kikuyus, Kenya's largest ethnic group, had long been resented for their dominance of the economy and politics. Western Kenya's Rift Valley had seen some of the worst violence.

Odinga had said he wanted a new election, while Kibaki had made clear he would not negotiate his position as president. In Nairobi, negotiators from the two camps began the first day of talks mediated by Annan.

- AP