Three die in Nairobi slum clashes
At least three people have been hacked to death with machetes in a Nairobi slum in renewed ethnic fighting over Kenya’s disputed election, residents said.
Elsewhere, police managed to quell more than two days of fierce fighting around a Catholic monastery that killed 22 people and left 200 homes burned in the Rift Valley, 190 miles northwest of the capital, Nairobi, officials said.
A government commission says more than 600 people have been killed in violence that erupted after the December 27 election, which opposition leader Raila Odinga accused President Mwai Kibaki of stealing.
As President Kibaki’s power becomes more entrenched each day, the opposition’s best hope may rest in wrangling a power-sharing agreement that might make Mr Odinga prime minister or vice president. International mediation has so far failed to broker such a deal.
Mr Odinga has called for another “peaceful protest” on Thursday, saying, “let them bring their guns and we will face them”.
The protest will take place in defiance of a ban and despite the deaths of at least 24 people in three days of protests last week – most of them blamed on police.
Yesterday’s bloodshed in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, like much of the fighting since the vote, was between the Kikuyu and Luo ethnic groups, said resident Boniface Shikami. President Kibaki is a Kikuyu and Mr Odinga is a Luo.
Mr Shikami said Luos in his street had received notices warning them to leave or risk attack.
