This is a report coming out of Kenya from the AP, where a rather disturbing situation has been developing over the last 48 hours. Ethnic strife is happening again on the African continent, reciprocating itself yet again, this time in a country that is said to be one of East Africa's most prosperous democracies.
Kenya Church Torched, 50 Reported Killed
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY and TOM ODULA, Associated Press Writers
NAIROBI, Kenya — A mob torched a church where hundreds had sought refuge Tuesday, and witnesses said dozens of people _ including children _ were burned alive or hacked to death with machetes in ethnic violence that followed Kenya's disputed election.
The killing of up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret brought the death toll from four days of rioting to more than 275, raising fears of further unrest in what has been one of Africa's most stable democracies.
The latest violence recalled scenes from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when more than a half-million people were killed. The question facing Kenya is whether the politicians will lose control of the mobs, triggering a civil war.
President Mwai Kibaki, who was swiftly inaugurated for a second term Sunday after a vote that critics said was rigged, called for a meeting with his political opponents _ a significant softening of tone for a man who rarely speaks to the press and who vowed to crack down on rioters.
But opposition candidate Raila Odinga refused, saying he would meet Kibaki only "if he announces that he was not elected." Odinga accused the government of stoking the chaos, telling The Associated Press in an interview that Kibaki's administration "is guilty, directly, of genocide."
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