| By Chief Editor,
on January 01 2008 17:28
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Favoured : 37 |
Close to
130 people were killed in Nairobi and in western Kenya overnight
during clashes that erupted following President Mwai Kibaki's
re-election, police said on Monday.
 Kenya Post Elections Violence The deaths brought the
confirmed toll from poll-related violence since Thursday's ballot
to 149, amid fears that suspicions of vote-rigging will see Kenya
face several more days of instability.
Forty-eight were killed in the capital,
Nairobi and 53 in Kisumu, the country's third city and a bastion
of defeated opposition challenger Raila Odinga, police said.
"We collected 36 bodies by 5am [local
time] in the morning from all over the city [Nairobi], mainly in
major slums. They were shot during confrontations with the police.
The majority are young men," a senior police official said.
Four other bodies were discovered in the
capital's Mathare slum.
"All these bodies are lying in the
mortuary," the official added.
Another eight were
killed in clashes in the Korogocho slum later on Monday, police
said.
Seven were killed in the Rift Valley
provincial capital, Nakuru, and further clashes between rival
supporters in a village near Kapsabet also left four dead
overnight, police said.
Later on Monday, three more people were
killed in Nakuru and two in the nearby town of Molo.
Doctors in Kakamega, western Kenya's
regional capital, said six died from gunshot wounds.
"Six more have died of the gunshot
wounds they suffered last night. The injured are being treated,"
said doctor, who requested to remain unnamed. An Agence
France-Presse (AFP) correspondent saw the six bodies.
The violence also spread to the eastern
port of Mombasa, which is Kenya's second largest city and had been
relatively spared by electoral unrest so far.
Six members of Kibaki's
Kikuyu tribe were hacked to death with machetes by members from
rival tribes, who were looting their businesses, police and an AFP
correspondent on the scene.
Kibaki was declared the winner on Sunday
but Odinga rejected the results, accusing the government of rigging
the counting process, and called for peaceful mass action.
The violence is the worst Kenya has seen
in its cities since the failed 1982 coup against authoritarian
former president Daniel arap Moi.
Meanwhile, on Monday vowed to "deal
decisively" with nationwide riots that have wracked the country
since he was announced re-elected.
In a New Year statement, Kibaki appealed
for "national healing" and reconciliation after his defeated
opposition challenger accused him of tampering with the tallying
process.
"My government will also deal decisively
with those who breach the peace by intensifying security across the
country," Kibaki said in the statement. -- AFP
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