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Six die in Kenya crackdown
14/03/2008 12:22 - (SA)
Eldoret - At least six people have been killed in western Kenya, where security forces launched a crackdown last week against a militia group, said officials on Friday.
Provincial chief Abdul Mwasera declined to comment on the deaths, but said 187 suspects had been arrested since the operation against the Sabaot Land Defence Forces (SLDF) was launched on March 09.
"I have seen three people who were killed by the army and other security officers as they conducted the operation in the district," said a local official, asking not to be named.
Another local official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said he saw "three more bodies being carried by the officers to an unknown location".
It was not clear exactly when the six died. The remote Mount Elgon area was difficult to access and residents had voiced fears that the police and military sweep could cause more human losses.
The SLDF had for months carried out repeated raids in the region, killing hundreds and displacing thousands others in protest of a government land redistribution scheme, which they said was unfair.
The group intensified attacks in 2006 and killed several villagers and destroyed homes in the fertile Mount Elgon region near the border with Uganda.
The violence in the flashpoint area was not directly linked to the turmoil that erupted after Kenya's disputed December elections, but tribal and land disputes had been exacerbated in recent weeks.
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