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Rioters attack minibus in Kenya
20/02/2008 13:28 - (SA)
Nairobi - Rioters attacked a bus full of people and blocked roads in a slum in Kenya's capital on Wednesday as they faced off against police who they charged were unfairly arresting people for rents gone unpaid amid weeks of post-election violence.
Confusion erupted in Nairobi's Mathare slum soon after dawn as about 250 men brandishing daggers and metal rods attacked a minibus passing through the area.
They stoned the vehicle and forced passengers to get off, and then torched the bus. Police were called in and violence subsided after about an hour, though one street remained blocked by the burned-out shell of the bus. Police said no deaths had been reported.
The outburst followed overnight police raids in which 80 people were arrested for not paying rent, local police chief Jasper Ombati said.
1 000+ people killed
But residents said the arrests were unfair. They argued that the chaos that had enveloped the area since a flawed December 27 election had made paying rents, or even finding landlords, impossible.
More than 1 000 people had been killed and some 600 000 forced from their homes in Kenya in weeks of violence sparked by the disputed presidential vote.
In Nairobi, the slums had been flash points, with waves of fighting erupting between ethnic groups that backed President Mwai Kibaki or opposition leader Raila Odinga, who said the election was stolen from him.
The two sides are engaged in peace talks to try to solve the political crisis, but the nation had remained volatile as a power-sharing deal continues to elude negotiators.
"We have not refused to pay rent, but because of the confusion after the post-election violence, we did not where to pay or who to pay to," one man said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of reprisals.
Women, kids held 'for their own safety'
Others said most of their landlords were members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe and had fled after repeated attacks on their group.
Alan Otieno, a resident who said he was among the rioters, said they attacked the bus because they were looking for Kikuyus and believed most bus drivers were members of Kibaki's tribe. He also accused police of stealing from the houses they raided.
Police chief Ombati said they were not arresting people indiscriminately, but "were acting on complaints from landlords and landladies that people were not paying rent". He said they arrested women and children "for their own safety".
Resident Daniel Otieno said many had lodged complaints about an area of vacant houses, where those displaced by recent violence had set up as squatters, but permanent residents were arrested.
"We have lived in this house for three years and we have not had a problem with the landlord," said 15-year-old Praxides Were, who said her parents were arrested during the raid. She and her three younger siblings escaped arrest by hiding under the bed.
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