NAIVASHA (Kenya), Jan 28: Police battled rioters as ethnic revenge attacks set off by last month’s elections spiralled across western Kenya, killing scores and provoking thousands to flee their homes.

The upsurge in violence — which has seen dozens hacked and burned to death in the western Rift Valley — undermined the latest mediation efforts led by Kofi Annan to try to resolve political deadlock after President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election on Dec 30.

The European Union warned on Monday that it would cut aid to Kenya unless its disputing politicians showed they were seeking a solution to the crisis.

At least 164 people have died in clashes across western Kenya in the past four days, according to the police.

The overall toll since the disputed Dec 27 election touched off the wave of deadly rioting has now surpassed 900.

While protests were sparked by the disputed vote tallying — which local and foreign observers said was flawed — latent ethnic, economic and land disputes have since fuelled revenge killings.

Members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, who suffered heavily in initial attacks from members of opposition leader Raila Odinga’s Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, sought revenge in new attacks.

Police said on Monday that 34 people had died in fresh violence, most of them hacked to death or shot by police trying to quell machete and arson attacks in the most recent flashpoint towns of Nakuru and Naivasha, famed for their wildlife.

In bloodshed that has transformed this once-stable African country, tourists and pleasure seekers were replaced Monday by mobs armed with machetes, sticks and arrows in central Naivasha.

Thousands of residents were seen fleeing on main roads, carrying any belongings they could hold on to. Around a quarter of a million people have already been displaced.

Fatalities also occurred in towns further west, that bore the brunt of the first wave of violence, including three in Burnt Forest, one in Kericho and two in Kaptembwa, according to a police commander.

Another man was killed by a stray bullet when security forces opened fire on rioting youths in the western opposition bastion of Kisumu, and similar scenes played out in the town of Eldoret — where many Kikuyus were attacked in the first clashes.

On the lakeside in Naivasha, where 14 Luos were burned to death in an attack on houses they sheltered in on Sunday, around 200 Luos faced off with around 100 Kikuyus, armed with planks and sticks, and police in between.

“We want to remove the Luos from this place because they have removed us from Kisumu and Eldoret,” one young Kikuyu said.

“They’ve said ‘no Raila, no peace’, now we are saying ‘no Kibaki, no peace’.” Police, heavily criticised by the public for failing to stop the attacks, said they had detained 155 people overnight in Naivasha and Nakuru.

“They are being probed over arson and murder,” police commissioner Major General Mohamed Hussein Ali told reporters.

Internal Security Minister George Saitoti was booed loudly on a brief trip to Naivasha when he urged people to stop fighting.

Meanwhile Henry Kosgei, the chairman of opposition leader Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement called the attacks “genocide sponsored by government agencies.” Government officials and Human Rights Watch have accused opposition leaders of organising the attacks in the Rift Valley.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels Monday urged Kenya’s political foes to work with international mediators towards a lasting political solution or risk an aid cut.

The EU “will decide upon its next course of action towards the situation in Kenya, and Kenya’s political leaders” based on how they engage with an “eminent persons group” of former UN secretary general Annan, Graca Machel, wife of South African former president Nelson Mandela, and Tanzanian former president Benjamin Mkapa, a statement said.

A British minister visiting Nairobi appealed to Odinga and Kibaki to clearly call for an end to the fighting.”—AFP