Clashes continue in Kenya despite power-sharing deal

Nairobi: Eight people have been killed in separate attacks in western and central Kenya, government officials said on Friday, underlining the difficulty of reversing Kenyas cycle of post-election violence despite President Mwai Kibaki and his rival agreeing to share power.

On Thursday, Kibaki urged lawmakers to pass the laws needed to enforce the country's new power-sharing agreement that was reached last week. It calls for Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to share power after both sides claimed victory in the December 27 presidential election.

Their dispute unleashed weeks of bloodshed, killing more than 1,000 people and exposing divisions over land and economic inequality.

Julius Mutula, a senior government official, said attackers suspected to be Turkana tribesmen yesterday shot dead two members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe in Aiyam village, about 300 kilometers from the capital Nairobi.

Mutula, the district commissioner for the central Kenya district of Laikipia West, said that a group of suspected Turkana attackers also killed five other Kikuyus in two villages neighboring Aiyam.

He said that the attackers are believed to be seeking revenge for the death of their fellow tribesmen who were lynched earlier in the week for what Kikuyu tribesmen say was the theft of 15 goats.

In the western town of Kitale, a police officer on Thursday shot dead a man who attacked him with a machete as police tried to disperse people who had invaded a farm, said Bernard Muli, the police chief of Kitale.

On tuesday Kenya's unicameral Parliament is expected to debate two bills needed to enforce the power-sharing deal one a constitutional amendment.

Kibaki and Odinga must try to help more than a half-million people who have been displaced from their homes and require food, water and medical care.

There also is the matter of restoring one of Africa's most promising economies and bring back tourists to the country.