THURSDAY, 4.15PM:
POLITICAL violence between the Kalenjin supporters of Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi and Kikuyu supporters of opposition parties has nearly reached Nakuru, Kenya’s fourth largest town.
Fifteen houses belonging to members of the Kikuyu tribe were torched during the night at a farm south-west of Nakuru, Father Stephen Mbugua said, and one person was reported missing after the raid. Refugees are said to be fleeing nearby Njoro in their hundreds.
Shops in Nakuru, which is 150km north-west of Nairobi, remain closed and minibus taxis are not running while their Kikuyu owners protest the violence.
Officials are “in meetings” and have not commented. Moi, elected last month to a fifth, five-year term, has blamed the violence, which has claimed 87 lives in the last three weeks, on opposition parties.
There have been resounding condemnations of government inaction by church and opposition figures. Evidence of government complicity in the violence is raising memories of similar post-election violence in 1992, in which 1 500 people died.
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