Kenya
Page under construction - conflict profile coming soon.
Latest Update from CrisisWatch (January 2008)
Credible reports of 27 December presidential election rigging led to
violence in several parts of country. Incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki,
declared winner 30 December amid protests and international concern
about credibility of polls. Violence by youth gangs, vigilante groups
followed, while police commissioner implemented shoot to kill policy
against protesters, particularly in opposition strongholds in west,
coastal and Nairobi slum areas; over 300 killed and 70,000 displaced in
post-poll violence. Defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga (from
Luo tribe) and Kibaki (Kikuyu) called for end to killing; accused each
other’s supporters of ethnic cleansing. 30, mostly Kikuyu, died in
western town of Eldoret after church sanctuary set on fire by mob, 1
January. Scores of opposition sympathisers killed indiscriminately by
police in Kisumu and Nairobi. Kibaki reportedly called for meeting,
rejected by Odinga 1 January. AU head, Ghanaian president John Kufuor,
former President of Sierra Leone and head of Commonwealth delegation
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and Archbishop Desmond Tutu called in to mediate
dispute.
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