Death Toll in Kenya Rises to 300 in Post-Election Violence

NAIROBI, Kenya _ The death toll from post-election tribal warfare in Kenya rose to 300 on Wednesday as rescue workers sifted through the carnage of a church bombing and witnesses reported dozens of deaths at a tea plantation in central Kenya.

Officials in the central town of Eldoret increased to 35 the number of ethnic Kikuyus who had been killed Tuesday at the Assemblies of God church when a mob set fire to the building, where families had sought refuge from the violence.

The spasm of violence has stunned the citizens of this long-peaceful nation. In a rare front-page editorial, Kenya’s leading newspaper, the Daily Nation, warned that the bloodletting was likely to continue.

A few miles from the church, witnesses said that some 40 bodies, many of them displaying machete wounds, lay on the grounds of the Kaptein Tea Estate, owned by the Unilever Corp.

Residents interviewed by telephone said the victims belonged mostly to the Kisii tribe, which is allied with the Kikuyu in that area, but their accounts couldn’t be verified. Authorities and rescue workers had yet to reach the area.

The independent Kenya Human Rights Commission said that more than 300 people had been killed since the disputed election last Thursday and that opposition supporters were “assassinating” Kikuyus. The Kikuyu incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, claimed a narrow victory, but U.S. and European observers have said that widespread fraud, including vote-rigging, marred the election.

Anger over the vote intensified as the government’s head election official said that Kibaki’s campaign had pressured him to announce a winner before vote tallies could be verified.

Asked on local television Monday night whether Kibaki had indeed won the slimmest presidential vote in Kenyan history, the official, Samuel Kivuitu, said, “I don’t know.”

Like countless homes and businesses across the country, Kenya’s reputation as a haven of stability in Africa has gone up in flames since Sunday, when the result was announced and Kibaki hastily took the oath of office.

In troubling echoes of Africa’s deadliest internecine wars _ in Rwanda, Congo and Somalia _ the bloodletting of the past few days has pitted members of opposition leader Raila Odinga’s ethnic group, the Luo, and other tribes against Kikuyus, who compose about one-quarter of the population but have long dominated business and politics in Kenya.

In Nairobi, the capital, tensions were high ahead of a major march scheduled for Thursday by Odinga, who has accused Kibaki of stealing the election. The government has vowed to block the rally, citing national security, and hundreds of soldiers formed a menacing ring Wednesday around the downtown park where the rally was expected.

Some 70,000 Kenyans have fled their homes over the past five days, according to the United Nations.

___

(Special correspondent Munene Kilongi contributed to this report.)

___

(c) 2008, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

_____

GRAPHICS (from MCT Graphics, 202-383-6064): 20080102 Kenya ethnic, 20080102 Kibaki bio and 20080102 Odinga bio

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. 1052537