Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's government accused rival Raila Odinga's party of unleashing "genocide" in Kenya yesterday as the death toll from tribal violence over a disputed election passed 300.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts accelerated to seek a solution to the crisis that has displaced tens of thousands of people.
"It is becoming clear that these well-organized acts of genocide and ethnic-cleansing were well-planned, financed and rehearsed by Orange Democratic Movement leaders prior to the general elections," a statement read by Lands Minister Kivutha Kibwana on behalf of his colleagues said.
Odinga's supporters, drawn mainly from his Luo tribe, have made similar charges against Kibaki, whose Kikuyu have dominated political and business life in East Africa's biggest economy.
As young men armed with machetes manned roadblocks in rural areas, a trickle of office workers in the capital Nairobi made it through police cordons to begin the new working year.
"They call this democracy," said a central bank worker, delayed by police as he tried to get to work.
A local and an international rights group accused Kenyan security forces of having "bloodily repressed" protests by opposition supporters.
"As a reaction, some protesters are responsible for the assassination of Kikuyus," the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the International Federation for Human Rights said.
And in an apparent chain reaction, there were growing examples yesterday of revenge killings by Kikuyu militants, including the notorious Mungiki gang, on pro-opposition tribes.
On Tuesday, about 30 Kikuyus died when a mob set fire to a church where they were hiding from the violence in the western town of Eldoret.
The head of the African Union, Ghanaian President John Kufuor, was expected in Nairobi yesterday to lead a joint mediation effort with the Commonwealth, represented by the head of its observer mission, former Sierra Leonean president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
Commonwealth spokesman Julius Mucunguzi said Kabbah had met with the rival leaders and they had "agreed to his mediation."
In a statement issued in London yesterday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in pressing for a resolution to the crisis.
"We call on all political leaders to engage in a spirit of compromise that puts the democratic interests of Kenya first," the joint statement said.
Kibaki, 76, has called for talks with party leaders, but Odinga has insisted he will only negotiate if the president acknowledges that he cheated.
On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he had spoken to Kufuor and Kabbah and discussed a joint AU-Commonwealth mission to oversee the process of reconciliation.
"What I want to see is them coming together," he said.
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