Brutal unrest across Kenya over President Mwai Kibaki's reelection left about 150 people dead in a day taking the overall toll to at least 185 killed in four days. Police opened fire on some protesters and looters and many people were killed with machetes as ethnic tensions mounted.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga renewed his accusations that the presidential election was rigged and the United States withdrew its endorsement of the result. Riots broke out almost immediately and police and mortuary officials said at least 75 people were killed in cities in western Kenya overnight and a further 48 in Nairobi's slum areas.
At least 24 people have died in election-related violence in the western town of Eldoret since Saturday, a hospital official said. Around 53 people were killed in Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold in the west, hospital officials said.
Kisumu police chief declined to comment on the death toll, but acknowledged that officers had opened fire on "looters" during the night.
The UN's top human rights official, Louise Barbour, called on the Kenyan authorities to root out security force excesses. Police clamped a day-time curfew on the Kisumu, with an order to shoot violators. According to police, hundreds of houses have already been torched in the western Rift Valley province and fresh riots and looting broke out Monday in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum. |