Kenya riots: 150 dead in 1 day

2008-01-01 13:27

Nairobi - Brutal unrest across Kenya over President Mwai Kibaki's re-election left about 150 people dead on Monday - some hacked to death - taking the overall toll to at least 185 killed in four days.

Police opened fire on some protesters and looters and many people were killed with machetes as ethnic tensions mounted.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga renewed his accusations that the presidential election was rigged and the United States withdrew its endorsement of the result.

Kibaki vowed to clamp down on the unrest.

"We have put enough police officers in the specific areas where the incidences of violence have occurred to ensure everyone is secure," he said in a New Year message in which he appealed for "national healing" and reconciliation.

'Victory' rejected

Odinga again rejected Kibaki's victory and urged his supporters to turn out for an alternative "inauguration" rally in Nairobi on Thursday. Police banned his plan for a rival swearing in on Monday and threatened Odinga with arrest if it went ahead.

The 76-year-old Kibaki overtook Odinga's early lead to win the election and his swearing-in on Sunday sparked a new round of violence.

Riots broke out almost immediately and police and mortuary officials said at least 75 people were killed in cities in western Kenya overnight and a further 48 in Nairobi's slum areas.

At least 24 people have died in election-related violence in the western town of Eldoret since Saturday, a hospital official said. Around 53 people were killed in Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold in the west, hospital officials said.

Ethnic rivalries have flared in the political tensions.

Six members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe were hacked to death on Monday in the port of Mombasa, residents said.

"Whatever has happened to us, because Raila was not sworn in as president, we will avenge and start moving from house to house to kill the Kikuyus," one Mombasa resident said, before running amok with a gang of looters.

Response to deaths

The Kikuyus, the country's largest tribe, responded to the deaths in Mobasa, killing three Luo, the second largest group, to which Odinga belongs. Another 10 people were killed in Mombasa in separate incidents, police said.

Foreign governments warned their nationals to avoid non-essential travel to the east African nation, while tour operators called off excursions for tourists already there.

In Eldoret, an official at the Moi Referral and Teaching Hospital said most of the people killed there had bullet and machete wounds.

The credibility of the election has been questioned by Britain, Canada, the United States and the European Union's election observers.

Washington initially congratulated Kibaki on his re-election but the US State Department on Monday withdrew the endorsement of the vote count made 24 hours earlier.

- AFP