UN delegation arrives in Kenya

2008-02-07 09:19

Nairobi - A United Nations fact-finding mission has arrived in Kenya to assess allegations of grave human rights violations since the country's disputed presidential election, which unleashed weeks of deadly violence.

The three-week mission - sent by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour - arrived on Wednesday and would gather information from the government and the opposition, along with victims and witnesses. The findings would be made public.

"Truth and accountability are of critical importance in putting an end to the violence and preventing future human rights violations," said Arbour in a statement on Tuesday from her agency's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

UN associate spokesperson Farhan Haq, at headquarters in New York, confirmed that the fact-finding mission had "arrived in Kenya today".

Violence death toll tops 1 000

The December 27 election, which foreign and local observers said was rigged, returned President Mwai Kibaki to power for a second five-year term after opposition leader Raila Odinga's lead evaporated overnight.

The ensuing violence had killed more than 1 000 people and had devastated the country's economy. Violence continued in western Kenya, scene of some of the worst post-election clashes.

Police said they fired to disperse hundreds of residents who had barricaded the gates of the police station in Litein on Tuesday, 235km west of Nairobi. Two teachers were killed.

In a forest nearby, officers on Wednesday retrieved 18 bodies with gunshot and machete wounds. They had been killed in four days of clashes between rival gangs, which police stopped by throwing grenades.

Aside from clashes with police, much of the fighting had been between rival ethnic groups, with much of the anger aimed at Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and the economy.

Ethnic cleansing

The violence had been shockingly brutal in a country once considered among the most stable in Africa, with thugs using crude weapons such as machetes and bows and poisoned arrows.

The top United States diplomat for Africa said last month she saw the violence as ethnic cleansing, but the State Department backed away from her statement, saying the US had not yet concluded whether atrocities had been committed.

Odinga was demanding a new election, but Kibaki had refused, arguing his re-election was fair.

On Wednesday, Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement threatened to organise more mass rallies and stop a gathering of African foreign ministers in Nairobi because they were not consulted about the meeting.

The opposition's previous protests had turned violent, with police firing teargas and live bullets to break up crowds. "The (threat) of a mass rally stands," said Ahmed Hashi, an ODM spokesperson, adding the party "will make sure that they do not meet here".

- AP