Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/world/africa/01kenya.html
February 1, 2008
Second Kenyan Opposition Legislator Killed
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN [Kenya] [eastern Africa just below horn] [shared border with Somalia where a lot of jihadis and islamist activities as well as anarchy] [all sides, including Pentagon’s relativel new Africa Command have used Kenya as staging area] [very volatile with democracy slowly making inroads] [recent elections] [mounting violence and chaos] [both UN and US have sent envoys] [******]
NAIROBI, Kenya —A second Kenyan opposition lawmaker was shot dead on Thursday and riots immediately exploded in opposition strongholds.
The violence led to the postponement of talks being brokered by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, and the current secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, said he would travel to Nairobi on Friday to help address the crisis.
The lawmaker who was killed, David Kimutai Too, was shot by a policeman in Eldoret in the country’s volatile Rift Valley [*******]where many people have already been killed or have fled their homes, but Kenyan government officials were quick to say the latest killing was connected to an illicit love triangle. The opposition, however, called it an assassination.
“This is the part of the strategy to reduce the number of parliamentarians,” said Salim Lone, a spokesman for the top opposition leader, Raila Odinga.
Mr. Too was the second opposition lawmaker to be killed in two days in a spiral of violence that has claimed more than 800 lives in the country and is putting Kenya on the brink of disaster.
The trouble began with a disputed election in December, in which Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, was declared the winner despite widespread evidence of vote rigging, and the violence has steadily moved, town by town, death by death, across the country.
On Tuesday, Melitus Mugabe Were, a popular opposition member of Parliament, was dragged from his car and shot dead in his driveway by two armed thugs. The police are investigating closely but Mr. Were’s friends and family say he was not robbed and the killing was a professional assassination.
Mr. Annan, who has emphasized that time is running out in Kenya, told reporters that because of what had happened “we have postponed this afternoon’s session and we will work all day tomorrow so that the leaders can attend to urgent matters."
Mr. Ban said he would travel to Nairobi on Friday from an African Union summit in neighboring Ethiopia to help with the talks between the opposing political sides.
Mr. Too is a member of the Kalenjin ethnic group, which has supported the opposition.[****] In the days after the election, Kalenjins swept across the countryside burning homes that belonged to Kikuyus, [****]Mr. Kibaki’s ethnic group, and killing many Kikuyus. In one incident, a Kalenjin mob burned to death up to 50 people hiding in a church. Most of them were Kikuyu women and children.
Mr. Too’s killing seemed to send a shock wave of outrage — and panic — across Kenya.
In Kisumu, an opposition stronghold in the far west of Kenya, mobs of young men tore through the streets, burning tires, hurling rocks and blockading roads. They didn’t seem to accept the government’s explanation of the killing, and it seems that even if Mr. Too’s death had nothing to do with the incredibly volatile political situation here, it is bound to be interpreted in that way.
“We won’t believe what they say,” said Willis Omondi, a protester with a sling in his hand. “We know the government is involved. Kibaki’s government will never work in Kenya. We will paralyze them even if they kill our leaders.”
In Eldoret, police clashed with protesters who had ringed the police station. Kenyan authorities said they had arrested the policeman who shot Mr. Too but the mob was demanding that the police hand him over.
According to government authorities, Mr. Too was driving in his car with a female police officer whose boyfriend was also a police officer. The boyfriend drove alongside them on a motorcycle and shot and killed both.
The Rift Valley, one of the most beautiful slices of Africa, has been the epicenter of Kenya’s postelection problems and is home to ethnic groups that have long felt others do not belong.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company