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Kenyan party leaders blame each other for violence
The Kenyan president and opposition leader have accused each other of ethnic cleansing as the post election violence continued.
- Agencies
- Published: 15:10 January 2, 2008
Nairobi: The Kenyan president and opposition leader have accused each other of ethnic cleansing as the post election violence continued.
More than 275 people have died in the past week, including 30 people who were burned to death while sheltering in a church, since Mwai Kibaki was declared president in a close run vote dogged by vote rigging claims.
Tens of thousands of people have already fled and there have been reports of people being murdered for being from the wrong tribe.
Both Kibaki and the opposition candidate Raila Odinga.
have appealed for calm but also pointed accusatory fingers at each other.
Odinga has refused to meet Kibaki, saying he would only do so when he "he announces that he was not elected."
He added that the president's followers were "guilty, directly, of genocide".
Speaking to the BBC, a government spokesman accused Odinga's supporters of "engaging in ethnic cleansing".
EU observers said the election "fell short of international standards" and Odinga has said he was “robbed.''
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UK Foreign Minister David Miliband have issued a joint statement.
It said: "The immediate priority is to combine a sustained call from Kenya's political leaders for the cessation of violence by their followers with an intensive political and legal process that can build a united and peaceful future for Kenya.''
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