MP's killing sparks more violence in Kenya
Updated Tue. Jan. 29 2008 8:51 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A doctor in Kenya was beheaded in the street Tuesday, an apparent retaliation to the shooting death of an opposition MP.
The incidents mark the latest in ongoing ethnic violence following President Mwai Kibaki's election victory last December -- a vote that observers say had been rigged.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga claims he is the rightful election winner.
Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that the rival leaders had agreed to a "dialogue process" starting this afternoon.
"We're into almost a month of violence," Rob Crilly, a reporter for The Times of London, told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday. "The peace talks are moving forward but no one really expects a breakthrough for some weeks or even months."
Crilly, in Nairobi, said it will be difficult for both parties to find a common ground.
Early Tuesday, two gunmen shot opposition legislator Mugabe Were as he drove to his house in suburban Nairobi, police confirmed.
"We are treating it as a murder but we are not ruling out anything, including political motives,'' Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. "We are urging everyone to remain calm.''
But shortly thereafter, a gang of youths belonging to Odinga's Luo tribe pulled a Kikuyu doctor out of his office and beheaded him using machetes.
"They pulled the doctor out and then cut and cut until his head was off," Sabat Abdullah, a resident of Kibera (a Nairobi slum) told The Associated Press.
Another resident of Kibera said houses were being torched near a railway that splits members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe from Luo inhabitants.
"They have decided to revenge this MP," said Teddy Njoroge.
Were was one of numerous opposition members who won a seat in December's legislative vote, which took place at the same time as the presidential elections.
Kibaki denounced the killing Tuesday and promised that the gunmen would be held responsible.
Odinga said his party suspected "the foul hands of our adversaries."
In Naivasha, Kenya's flower-exporting capital, looters smashed shop windows and set homes ablaze.
A local reporter said he saw a mob of Kikuyus stone two Luos to death. Earlier, Kikuyus stoned to death another Luo man.
In Kisumu town, a Kikuyu man was stoned, slashed with machetes and then thrown into a stack of burning tires.
"We didn't waste time, we had to kill him," said Stanley Ochieng, 25.
Much of the violence has occurred in western Kenya's Rift Valley -- where both Kikuyu and Luo tribes are located.
More than 800 people have been killed in violence since the Dec. 27 election. Half of the 255,000 people displaced from their homes have been Kikuyus who live in the valley.
With files from The Associated Press
