Hundreds of people from rival tribes confronted one another on a main road of Kenya's flower capital yesterday, hefting machetes, clubs and rocks and retreating only when a handful of police between them fired live bullets into the air.
Trouble also broke out in another western town, Kisumu, where similarly armed mobs set some houses ablaze. Gangs set buses ablaze at the main downtown bus station, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to witness Lillian Ocho.
A month of ethnic clashes roiling Kenya have claimed the lives of 800 people. The fighting began after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's Dec. 27 re-election, which his main rival Raila Odinga -- and international and local observers -- say was rigged. Much of the violence has pitted other ethnic groups against Kibaki's Kikuyu people, who have long dominated business and politics in the country. About 255,000 people have been forced from their homes.
The bloodshed has transformed this once-stable African country, pitting longtime neighbors against one another and turning tourist towns into no-go zones.
In Kisumu yesterday, angry young men blocked roads out of the town with burning tires and rocks.
"Kikuyus must go! No Raila, no peace!" they yelled.
In Kisumu, some members of Odinga's Luo tribe took out their rage on Kikuyus, including the bus driver who was burned to death.
"The road is covered in blood. It's chaos. Luos are hunting Kikuyus for revenge," said Baraka Karama, a journalist for state broadcaster Kenya Television.
Police opened fire. A morgue attendant said one man whose body was brought in had been shot in the back of the head. A school cleaner was also hit and killed by a stray bullet fired by a policeman, said Charles Odhiambo, a teacher at Lion's High School.
Violence spread over the weekend to Naivasha, 90km northwest of Nairobi, a previously quiet tourist town with a stunning freshwater lake. It is also the center of Kenya's horticultural industry and a key flower-exporting area.
"We have moved out to revenge the deaths of our brothers and sisters who have been killed, and nothing will stop us," said Anthony Mwangi, hefting a club in Naivasha on Sunday. "For every one Kikuyu killed, we shall avenge their killing with three."
At least 22 people were killed in the town over the weekend, said district commissioner Katee Mwanza, as Kikuyus set ablaze the homes of rivals from Odinga's Luo tribe.
Nineteen of them were Luos a gang of Kikuyus chased through a slum and trapped in a shanty that they set on fire, said police commander Grace Kakai. The others were hacked to death with machetes, a local reporter told the press.
Outnumbered, police did not intervene. Gunshots rang out into the evening.
Yesterday morning, the two sides, numbering up to 1,000, faced off around the entrance to the Lake Naivasha Country Club. When they advanced, a few police officers holding a line between them fired live bullets into the air. They retreated, then regrouped.
On Sunday, looters used iron bars to smash the windows of shops belonging to non-Kikuyu businesspeople, and made off with TV sets, groceries and clothing.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS