Ethnic clashes 'well planned', says Kenyan bishop

The Catholic bishop of one of the Kenyan towns worst hit by the ethnic clashes said today that the attacks appeared well planned and organised.

Bishop Cornelius Korir spoke in western Eldoret, where a church packed with President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe was burned to the ground.

"The way the attacks were managed seems to me very organised," the bishop said as US envoy Jendayi Frazer toured the region Tuesday. "No, it did not seem spontaneous to me ... It seems it was well planned."

Mr Kibaki's government also has charged the attacks were orchestrated, and both sides have traded accusations that the violence amounted to genocide or ethnic cleansing.

Yesterday the Ministry of Special Programs put the death toll from the rioting at 486 with some 255,000 people displaced from their homes.