KENYA

Post-election death toll rises to over 250

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

The death toll in Kenya from clashes that followed President Mwai Kibaki's re-election has risen to over 250. The Kisumu city morgue said at least 48 bodies with fresh bullet wounds were brought in on Tuesday.

At least 66 bodies were discovered in Kenya following another night of police raids and tribal killings, police said Tuesday, bringing the toll for five days of post-election bloodshed to 251.
  
Forty-eight bodies, most of them with fresh bullet wounds, were brought to the morgue in the western Kenya city of Kisumu, a mortuary attendant told AFP Tuesday.
  
"They brought in 48 bodies, including three children, 44 had fresh bullet wounds, four were hacked with machetes," the mortuary attendant said.
  
Police raids and tribal clashes over the past two days had already claimed 53 lives in Kisumu, the country's third city and a stronghold of defeated presidential challenger Raila Odinga.
  
"In total since yesterday, we have 101 bodies lying in the mortuary," the attendant added amid fears more victims would be discovered.
  
In Kisumu's Kondele slum, "there are three uncollected bodies lying on the ground," John Otieno, a local resident, told an AFP correspondent on the scene.
  
"Police went on a killing spree overnight. They have been shooting indiscriminately at people," he added.
  
At least 18 other people were killed overnight in the nearby town of Eldoret and its surroundings, police said.
  
"Seven people were killed in Timboroa settlement overnight. The public forcefully snatched an AK-47 rifle from a man, killing him and six of his colleagues," a police official said.
  
He was not able to elaborate on the exact circumstances of the incident, which took place a few kilometres outside Eldoret.
  
An AFP correspondent in the town also saw 11 bodies strewn in the streets of the Langas estate, with bullet or machete wounds.
  
The latest reports bring to at least 251 the total number of people who have been killed in the east African nation since the disputed December 27 polls, which saw incumbent President Mwai Kibaki retain his job amid rigging charges.

related links

31/12/07 Scores killed in Kenya riots
30/12/07 Kenya's Kibaki re-elected as chaos erupts
30/12/07 Calls for recount in Kenya
29/12/07 Riots erupt as Kenya vote goes down to the wire