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Kenyan police accused of killing seven
Kenya's opposition accused police of shooting dead seven people yesterday during a second day of clashes with demonstrators over President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election.
- Reuters
- Published: 17:37 January 17, 2008
- Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga claims police are shooting innocent civilians at will.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Nairobi: Kenya's opposition accused police of shooting dead seven people yesterday during a second day of clashes with demonstrators over President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election.
In the capital, Nairobi, and the western towns of Kisumu and Eldoret, police fired teargas and bullets on the second of three days of banned rallies called by opposition leader Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
Odinga, who accuses Kibaki of stealing victory in the December 27 ballot, said police shot dead seven people in Nairobi.
"Police are shooting innocent civilians at will ... the government has turned this country into a killing field of innocents," he told reporters.
Police had no immediate comment but in the past have said that its officers have shot ODM supporters engaged in looting.
Kenya's rapid plunge into crisis has tarnished its democratic credentials, horrified world powers, scared off tourists and hurt one of Africa's most promising economies.
Refugees
In three weeks since the vote, violence pitting police against protesters and opposition gangs against tribes seen as pro-Kibaki has caused about 620 deaths.
A quarter of a million people, mostly from Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, have been turned into refugees in the turmoil set off by a vote that foreign observers, including the Commonwealth, say fell short of democratic standards.
In the Kibera slum in Odinga's Nairobi constituency, a cameraman said people there had hijacked a train passing through and were stealing its cargo.
Earlier, a policeman in Mathare who asked not to be identified said some slum-dwellers had guns and were shooting at officers.
In the Rift valley town of Eldoret, police chasing protesters fired teargas into the emergency wing of the main hospital, striking a security guard, a hospital official said.
The European Parliament recommended budgetary aid be frozen until the crisis is solved, although unlike many of its African neighbours, Kenya is not aid-dependent and gets less than 5 per cent of its budget from aid.
Former UN head Kofi Annan, due to lead talks to end the standoff, is recovering from a bout of flu that delayed his trip, the United Nations said, but gave no date for his arrival.
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