Kenya atrocities continue
27/01/2008 17:26  - (SA)  

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Naivasha - Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya on Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69.

Houses were blazing in the centre of Naivasha, a tourist gateway.

At least 55 bodies were counted on Sunday at the morgue in Nakuru, the provincial capital where ethnic clashes erupted on Thursday night and continued until Saturday.

Bodies were still arriving there on Sunday, said a morgue attendant who spoke on condition of anonmyity.

A local newspaper reporter saw another five bodies on Sunday in two slums on the outskirts of Nakuru.

The fighting spread on Sunday to Naivasha, 90km northwest of Nairobi, where at least nine people were killed, according to the count of a local reporter.

Nearly 800 dead

The latest deaths raise the toll to nearly 800 killed in ethnic violence and clashes with police since President Mwai Kibaki was declared winner of December 27 balloting that international and local observers say was rigged.

Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claims he won the election, remain far apart on how to resolve the crisis, the worst the country has suffered since its 1963 independence from Britain.

Kibaki has said he is open to direct talks with Odinga, but that his position as president is not negotiable.

Odinga says Kibaki must step down and new elections are the only way to bring peace.

Underlying causes

On Sunday, Odinga was meeting with former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, the latest international mediator attempting to bring the two sides together.

Annan toured trouble spots on Saturday in the western Rift Valley, which includes Naivasha, and alluded to underlying causes of the conflict.

"We cannot accept the pattern every five years these sorts of incidents take place and no one is held to account," Annan said.

"Let's not kid ourselves this is an electoral problem. This is much broader."

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