Nairobi, December 31
Close to 130 people were killed in Nairobi and in western Kenya overnight during clashes that erupted following President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election, the police said today.
The deaths brought the confirmed toll from poll-related violence since Thursday’s ballot to 149, amid fears that suspicions of vote rigging will see Kenya face several more days of instability.
Forty-eight were killed in the capital Nairobi and 53 in Kisumu, the country’s third city and a bastion of defeated opposition challenger Raila Odinga, the police said.
“We collected 36 bodies by 5.00 am (local time) in the morning from all over the city (Nairobi), mainly major slums. They were shot during confrontations with the police. The majority are young men,” a senior police official told AFP. Four other bodies were discovered in the capital,s Mathare slum.
“All these bodies are lying in the mortuary,” the official added.
Another eight were killed in clashes in the Korogocho slum later today, the police said. Seven were killed in the Rift Valley provincial capital Nakuru and further clashes between rival supporters in a village near Kapsabet also left four dead overnight, the police said. Later today, three more people were killed in Nakuru and two in the nearby town of Molo.
Doctors in Kakamega, western Kenya’s regional capital, said six died from gunshot wounds.
In a New Year statement, Kibaki appealed for “national healing” and reconciliation after his defeated Opposition challenger Raila Odinga accused him of tampering with the tallying process.
According to a tally compiled by AFP, 149 people have been killed in political and tribal violence across the east African country since polling day on December 27.
— AFP
