West Beginning to Turn on Kenya as Mob Burn 30 Alive
Members of the Kikuyu tribe were hiding in a church when it was set ablaze
NAIROBI, Kenya January 1st, 2007 — -- At least 30 people in Western Kenya were killed after an angry mob set fire to a church where some 200 villagerss were taking refuge from ethnic-violence.
A local reporter told the Associated Press that youths came to the church and fought with boys guarding it, " but they were overpowered," said the reporter. He says he saw up to 15 bodies. "They were charred, I could not look at the scene twice," he said.
Witnesses say more 200 members of the Kikuyu tribe, of which Kenyan President Kibaki belongs, had fled to the church to escape attacks by the dominant Kalenjin tribe near the city of Eldoret. The incident is reminiscent of tactics used in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, and is the latest example of a country imploding, since the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki last weekend. Reports of violence against Kikuyus all over the country are surfacing as many of Kenya's 42 tribes take out their anger on what they feel were rigged elections.
European Union election observers have called for an independent investigation into the allegations of vote rigging in Kenya's presidential election, giving President Mwai Kibaki a second term.
The results have led to mass rioting and violence throughout the country, leaving more than 200 people dead since Thursday
"General elections in the Republic of Kenya have fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections," the observation team said in a statement today. Calling the results "marred by a lack of transparency" in the vote tallying process, the team said the results could not be considered accurate.
Chief EU observer Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, told reporters at a press conference today that while election observers were allowed access to the actual voting process, they were denied observation of the votes being tallied. Presidential challenger Raila Odinga and his party the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), allege that the final vote numbers were tampered with to ensure President Kibaki's re-election.
