Politician's murder brings more chaos to Kenya

Fresh waves of violence swept Kenya today in the wake of the murder of an opposition MP.

Mobs took to the streets to demonstrate over the shooting of Mugabe Were, gunned down as he arrived at his home in a Nairobi suburb.

Clashes between rival tribes opened up again and in one a doctor was reportedly dragged from his surgery and beheaded.

Meanwhile the two men who have the power to end the unrest opened formal negotiations but President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga remained far apart on the key issues and continued to blame each other for the country’s plight.

Mr Odinga insisted what needed “the most urgent attention” was the resolution of the suspect election that returned the president to power last month.

Mr Kibaki concentrated on the fact that some Kenyans “have been incited to hate one another and view each other as enemies.”

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who is trying mediate the dispute and organised today’s meeting told them: “The people need you.”

He added: “They want you to take charge of the situation and do whatever possible to prevent the downward slide into chaos that is threatening this country.”

Police said Mr Were’s death was being treated “as a murder but we are not ruling out anything, including political motives.”

“We suspect the foul hands of our adversaries,” said Mr Odinga as he travelled to Mr Were’s home, where dozens of protesters manned burning barricades of tyres and uprooted telephone posts.

Mr Kibaki condemned the killing, appealed for calm and promised police would act swiftly.

As the news reached the city’s slums gangs emerged looking for vengeance.

Sabat Abdullah said a group armed with machetes dragged a doctor belonging to the president’s Kikuyu tribe from his clinic “and then cut and cut until his head was off.”

Similar scenes convulsed western Kenya, where police in helicopters fired on crowds.

Since the disputed election, the death toll across a country once among the most stable in Africa has soared to over 800. Much of the violence has pitted other tribes against the Kikuyu, long resented for their dominance of Kenyan politics and business.

US presidential hopeful Barack Obama whose father was Kenyan, appealed for peace on a Nairobi radio station.

“Now is the time for all parties to renounce violence. Now is the time for Kenyan leaders to rise above party affiliations and past ambitions for the sake of peace,” Mr Obama said. “Most troubling are new indications that the violence is being organised, planned and co-ordinated.”

In the Mathare slum, armed Luo tribesmen at a roadblock dragged a Kikuyu man from his car and killed him with machetes.

Supporters of Mr Were in the slum area of Dandora, his constituency, set fire to homes and shops owned by Kikuyus and brandished axes and machetes.

Police fired tear gas, and later live bullets, to disperse them, and beat them with clubs.

In Western Kenya’s Rift Valley, about 5,000 people set fire to homes and smashed shop windows in Naivasha, dragging away goods. Five police officers fired into the air but were unable to control the turmoil. Naivasha’s police chief tried to calm the crowd but was pelted with stones and fled in his car.

A police helicopter and two military helicopters then flew over the crowd and officers began shooting, sending people running in panic.

Reporters also watched the helicopters swoop down, with officers firing on a mob of armed Kikuyus pinning down hundreds of Luos outside the Naivasha Country Club. Kikuyus, armed with machetes and clubs inset with nails, had prevented the Luos from escaping for two days.