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/ 1 February 2008
The aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Friday it was pulling all its international staff out of Somalia after three of its staff were killed by a roadside bomb. For the time being ”MSF has suspended all international staff presence”, the medical humanitarian organisation said in a statement released in Nairobi.
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/ 1 February 2008
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flew into Kenya on Friday to provide heavyweight diplomatic clout for efforts to end a month of post-election turmoil in which more than 850 people have been killed. African leaders at a summit in neighbouring Ethiopia attended by the UN head have called for urgent action to stop the bloodletting
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/ 31 January 2008
Kenya’s police said the fatal shooting of a legislator by a policeman on Thursday was a ”crime of passion” and had already led to one arrest. But the head of the Orange Democratic Movement, Raila Odinga, called the death of David Kimutai Too in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret a politically-motivated ”execution”.
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/ 30 January 2008
Kenya on Wednesday pledged tougher action to rein in post-election violence that threatens to spiral out of control, in the East African nation’s darkest moment since independence in 1963. Protests over President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election in the December 27 vote have degenerated into cycles of killing between rival tribes.
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/ 30 January 2008
People in drought-affected regions of central and southern Somalia need urgent help after losing most of their livestock, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information, Ahmed Abdisalam, said on Wednesday. He said the worst-affected regions are Hiiraan, Galgadud, Mudug and parts of Bay and Bakol and Gedo.
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/ 29 January 2008
Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan brought together Kenya’s political rivals on Tuesday in a push to mediate an end to the post-election crisis and stop spreading tribal bloodshed. About a dozen people were killed in the country on Tuesday, bringing the toll to more than 850.
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/ 29 January 2008
An international rights group on Monday urged Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, who is struggling to gain control over his nation, to ensure reporters rights are protected in the increasingly volatile Horn of Africa state. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged the premier to ”end the ongoing pattern of countrywide arbitrary arrests”.
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/ 28 January 2008
One of the churchmen was lucky; the bullet only ripped through his shirtsleeve, leaving him with little more than a graze. The other, seated by his side, was less fortunate; the same bullet tore into his back. ”We were just chatting and then these guys [the police] came and started shooting,” said Pastor Isaac Mujete as he comforted colleague Francis Ivayo, who lay writhing in pain in Masaba hospital.
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/ 25 January 2008
Ethnic fighting killed at least 12 people in Kenya’s Rift Valley and forced thousands from their homes on Friday. The violence, and a denial by opposition leader Raila Odinga that he would agree to serve as prime minister under President Mwai Kibaki, followed the first meeting between the two rivals since a disputed December 27 election triggered a political crisis.
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/ 25 January 2008
Tourist arrivals in Uganda have dropped by up to 30% since post-election violence in neighbouring Kenya rocked the region, tourism officials said on Friday. ”Our numbers [of tourists] have gone down by 20, 30%,” Edwin Muzahura, spokesperson for the Uganda Tourist Board, said.
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/ 25 January 2008
A new flare-up of violence shook Kenya on Friday and fresh political recriminations dulled hopes a meeting between the president and opposition leader could resolve a month-long crisis. The local Red Cross said clashes related to a disputed December 27 poll had engulfed areas around the town of Nakuru.
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/ 24 January 2008
The two rivals in Kenya’s political crisis met on Thursday for the first time since a disputed election and pledged to seek an end to weeks of unrest that have killed nearly 700 people. President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga shook hands and smiled after the closed-door talks, brokered by former United Nations boss Kofi Annan.
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/ 24 January 2008
Kenya’s opposition on Wednesday called off mass rallies scheduled for Thursday to protest disputed presidential polls. This was at the request of former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, who is in Kenya to mediate the crisis. Annan was in Nairobi in the latest attempt to mediate the turmoil sparked by the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki last month.
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/ 23 January 2008
Police fired tear gas to disperse anti-government youths throwing rocks and taunting them at a memorial service on Wednesday organised by the opposition for people killed in an election protest crackdown. The latest trouble came as former United Nations chief Kofi Annan was to begin talks with President Mwai Kibaki and opposition challenger Raila Odinga.
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/ 22 January 2008
Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan was due to arrive in Kenya on Tuesday to try to mediate in a post-poll crisis that has torn the country in two and triggered weeks of violence that has killed hundreds. A hotly disputed election returned President Mwai Kibaki to power last month amid cries from opposition leader Raila Odinga that he rigged it.
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/ 22 January 2008
Kenya opposition leader Raila Odinga vowed on Monday to step up his challenge against President Mwai Kibaki as political unrest re-opened ethnic conflicts across the country. The tribes that voted for Kibaki in the December 27 election disputed by Odinga were being increasingly targeted by rival groups with long-running grievances.
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/ 21 January 2008
The Kenyan government condemned as ”illegal sabotage” on Monday a plan by the opposition to widen its protests against President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election to a boycott of companies linked to his allies. After a bloody weekend that added to the death toll of around 650 since the December 27 vote, the Orange Democratic Movement vowed to continue street rallies.
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/ 20 January 2008
Kenya’s opposition party, determined to bring down the government of President Mwai Kibaki, has called for another day of ”peaceful rallies” across Kenya in defiance of a ban and despite the deaths of more than 20 people in this week’s demonstrations.
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/ 19 January 2008
Two German nationals and a Dutch woman filmmaker were arrested by Kenyan police on suspicions related to terrorism, a police spokesperson said on Friday in Nairobi. The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin identified one of those held as Andrej Hermlin, a Berlin jazz musician.
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/ 18 January 2008
Opposition street protests over the disputed re-election of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki will end after demonstrations planned for Friday, a spokesperson said. At least eight people have been shot dead by police during two days of protests called by Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement.
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/ 17 January 2008
Kenyan police clashed with opposition members on Thursday in a second day of unrest over President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election, and the opposition said police had killed seven. In opposition strongholds in the capital, Nairobi, and the western town of Kisumu, police fired tear gas and live bullets and struck at least two people.
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/ 16 January 2008
Fresh violence in the Sudanese state of West Darfur has restricted humanitarian work around El Geneina, with aid workers describing the region as a "no-go area". According to aid workers, who did not want to be named, two villages in Geneina were bombed on January 12 and 13 by Sudanese government Antonov planes.
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/ 16 January 2008
Youths erected roadblocks, shopkeepers nailed up windows and Kenyan riot police guarded streets before opposition protests planned for Wednesday against President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election. Police have banned the rallies, scheduled for midday (9am GMT), and many Kenyans were staying at home for fear of trouble.
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/ 16 January 2008
A catchy ”song for peace” crackling over Kenyan radio is breaking pace with the litany of doom and gloom and bloody fallout from last month’s elections that dominates the air waves these days. WaKenya Pamoja (Kenya Together) carries a different message, and maybe a reason not to give up on a vote meant to uphold this nation as a beacon of democracy in a troubled region.
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/ 15 January 2008
Kenya’s new government and opposition clashed in Parliament for the first time on Tuesday in a bad-tempered session reflecting deep bitterness over the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki. Despite demands for urgent action to end a crisis in which hundreds have been killed, opposition and government legislators argued for an hour.
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/ 15 January 2008
The dispute over President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election in Kenya moved to Parliament on Tuesday as the government and opposition prepared to wrestle for control of the East African nation’s legislature. Roads were closed and riot police ringed the building in downtown Nairobi from early morning before the opening session of the new Parliament.
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/ 14 January 2008
The Kenyan government on Monday rejected a mediation mission by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to try to end political unrest and sent a stern warning to the opposition ahead of nationwide protests. Two weeks after President Mwai Kibaki’s contested re-election sparked violence that has left hundreds dead, Annan was due in Nairobi.
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/ 14 January 2008
Kenya’s feuding parties prepared on Monday for fresh duels in parliament and on the streets despite another international push to mediate a post-election crisis that has now killed at least 612 people. But for many around the East African nation, the top priority was getting millions of children back to their studies.
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/ 11 January 2008
Kenya’s opposition said on Friday it planned to restart protests across the East African nation against President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election after the failure of African Union mediation. Kibaki’s government has made clear it will not tolerate opposition marches. Previous protests have led to bloody clashes between opposition supporters and security forces.
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/ 10 January 2008
African Union chairperson John Kufuor quit Kenya on Thursday without a deal to end a political crisis that has killed hundreds of people, leaving the president and opposition leader accusing each other of wrecking talks. Controversy over President Mwai Kibaki’s re-election in a December 27 vote triggered bloodletting that displaced 250 000 people.
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/ 10 January 2008
Kenya’s carnivorous wildlife — big cats and scavenger mammals and birds — may have made off with and devoured the bodies of human victims of recent post-election violence. ”There are also an unspecified number of uncollected bodies due to accessibility difficulties, and it was feared the bodies may have been consumed by animals and birds of prey,” said the Kenya Red Cross Society.
African Union chief John Kufuor met Kenyan leaders on Wednesday to try to break a political deadlock following disputed presidential polls that sparked widespread violence and left at least 600 dead. President Mwai Kibaki, whose re-election 11 days ago triggered the unrest, denied there was any national crisis in his meeting with Kufuor.