Pressure mounts as Kenya election violence kills 300

NAIROBI, Kenya - International pressure mounted on Kenya's leaders Wednesday to end postelection violence that has killed more than 300 people, including dozens burned alive as they sought refuge in a church.

Post-election violence in Kenya brought international pleas for calm
Wednesday amid mounting concerns over the legitimacy of President Mwai
Kibaki's narrow victory in last week's vote.

Kenyan government officials claimed at least 148 people had so far
been killed and around 75,000 forced to flee their homes as gangs of
machete-wielding young men roamed the streets.

Horrific attacks are being reported, including the torching of a church where people who had sought refuge were burned alive.

Meanwhile, in an article published Wednesday in The Herald, Kenya's
oldest newspaper, the head of the country's electoral commission,
Samuel Kivuitu, was quoted as saying that he did not know who had won
the election.

Kivuitu said he had been pressured to announce the
results, The Associated Press reported. His remarks came after
international election observers had voiced doubts over the conduct of
last week's vote.

Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the head of
the African Union, was due to arrive in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, on
Wednesday to act as a mediator, a spokeswoman for the African Union
told AP.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British
Foreign Secretary David Milliband have also appealed for calm while
expressing concern at "serious irregularities in the counting process."

"We call on all political leaders to engage in a spirit of compromise
that puts the democratic interests of Kenya first... and we pledge the
diplomatic and political efforts of our two countries to support
reconciliation and national unity at this vital time for Kenya and the
region," the statement said.

Much of the violence is between
supporters of Kibaki, from the majority Kikuyu tribe, and backers of
opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is from the Luo tribe.

The ethnic violence, previously rare in Kenya, is reminiscent of the strife that led to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.


In a particularly disturbing incident, a mob appears to have burned a
church filled with Kenyans seeking refuge from the violence.

The Red Cross told AP that at least 50 were burned to death at the church, some of them children.

As many as 200 people were at the church, about 185 miles northwest of Nairobi, KTN reporter Tony Biwott told CNN.

The killing of up to 50 people from the Kikuyu tribe Tuesday as they sheltered in a church in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret fueled fears of deepening ethnic conflict in what has been one of Africa's most stable democracies.

The U.N. cited Kenyan police as saying 70,000 people had been
displaced in five days of violence. Around 5,400 people also have fled
to neighboring Uganda, said Musa Ecweru, that country's disaster preparedness minister. Several hundred people also have fled to Tanzania, officials there said.

Much of Nairobi was quiet and deserted Wednesday, though clashes continued in the city's giant Mathare slum.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua downplayed the violence, saying it
had only affected about 3 percent of the country's 34 million people.
"Kenya is not burning and not at the throes of any division," he said.

Mutua said the security forces had arrested 500 people since skirmishes began.

The independent Kenya Human Rights Commission and the International
Federation for Human Rights said in a joint statement that more than
300 people had been killed since the Dec. 27 vote.

President Mwai Kibaki was inaugurated for a second term Sunday, but his rival Raila Odinga says the poll was rigged.

The head of the country's electoral commission, Samuel Kivuitu, said
he had been pressured by both sides to announce the results quickly —
and perhaps wrongly. The country's oldest newspaper, The Standard, on
Wednesday quoted Kivuitu as saying, "I do not know whether Kibaki won
the election."

In a joint statement, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband also said there were "independent reports of serious irregularities in the counting process."

Both welcomed news the African Union would send its chief, Ghanaian President John Kufuor,
to mediate the conflict. AU spokeswoman Habiba Mejri-Cheikh said Kufuor
was expected in Kenya on Wednesday, but Kufuor's press office said the
leader had canceled the visit. They gave no explanation.

Rice and Miliband called "on all political leaders to engage in a
spirit of compromise that puts the democratic interests of Kenya first."

"The immediate priority is to combine a sustained call from Kenya's
political leaders for the cessation of violence by their followers,"
the statement said.

On Tuesday, Kibaki called for a meeting with his political opponents
— a significant softening of tone for a man who vowed to crack down on
rioters.

But opposition candidate Raila Odinga refused, saying he would meet
Kibaki only "if he announces that he was not elected." Odinga accused
the government of stoking the chaos, telling The Associated Press in an
interview that Kibaki's administration "is guilty, directly, of
genocide."

Miliband later said he did not know who won the election but that
both sides had a responsibility to resolve the conflict. "I very much
hope that both Mr. Odinga and President Kibaki will realize that there
is nothing to be gained by either of them pretending that this is cut
and dried," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Tens of thousands of people have already fled their homes amid the unrest.

Mwai Kibaki, who was officially re-elected president in
Thursday's vote, and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says he was
robbed of victory by fraud, traded accusations while calling for an end
to the killing.

A government spokesman told the BBC Mr Odinga's
supporters were "engaging in ethnic cleansing", while Mr Odinga said Mr
Kibaki's camp was "guilty, directly, of genocide".

Asked if he would urge his supporters to calm down, Mr
Odinga told the BBC: "I refuse to be asked to give the Kenyan people an
anaesthetic so that they can be raped."

He also ruled out a legal challenge to the poll result, saying: "We are not going to go to Kibaki's courts."

The African Union chairman, Ghanaian President John Kufuor, is due in the former British colony on Wednesday.

UK Foreign Minister David Miliband and US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice have issued a joint statement urging both sides
to "engage in a spirit of compromise".

BBC world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds says that
what the US and UK mean by that phrase is there should be a government
of national unity.

The message of the African Union chairman, whose visit
is fully backed by Britain and the US, is expected to be the same,
according to our correspondent.

The joint US-UK statement noted reports of "serious
irregularities" in the vote count but urged Kenya's political leaders
to unite in calling on their supporters to end the bloodshed.

In Nairobi's
slums, which are often divided along tribal lines, rival groups have
been fighting each other with machetes and sticks as police use tear
gas and bullets to keep them from pouring into the city center. The
capital has been a ghost town for days, with residents stocking up on
food and water and staying in their homes.

In Mathare, mothers clutching wide-eyed infants and suitcases were
evacuated by riot police while angry youths armed with machetes and
axes heaped abuse on the police as the slum burned.

"All you do here is come to pick up bodies," shouted Boniface Shikami.

Several threw rocks toward the police vehicle, and officers fired in
the air before a patrol truck skidded around a corner to try to
separate battling supporters of Odinga and Kibaki.

As shopkeepers battled with flames leaping through their
corrugated iron roofs, a dazed woman clutching a kitten wandered
through the smoke.

"They have burned down my house and all I have now is my cat," wailed Hannah Warigui.

John Okello, a doctor, said clinics around the city were running
short of basic materials like gauze because so many people have been
arriving with machete wounds. He said the city's main Nairobi Hospital
was trying to ferry supplies to the clinics.

The people killed in Eldoret, about 185 miles northwest of Nairobi, were members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe.

The Kikuyus in Eldoret had fled to the Assemblies of God Church
on Monday night, seeking refuge after mobs torched homes. Video from a
helicopter chartered by the Red Cross showed many homes in flames and
the horizon obscured by smoke. Groups of people were seen seeking
sanctuary at schools and the airport, while others moved into the
forest.

On Tuesday morning, a mob of about 2,000 arrived and started
burning the church, said George Karanja, whose family had sought refuge
there.

Karanja, 37, helped pull out at least 10 people, but added, "I
could not manage to pull out my sister's son. He was screaming 'Uncle,
uncle!' ... He died." The boy was 11.

Up to 50 people were killed in the attack, said a Red Cross official
who spoke on condition of anonymity because her name would identify her
tribe, and she feared reprisal. Even first aid workers were stopped by
vigilantes who demanded their identity.

Karanja said his two children raised their hands as they left
the church and they were beaten with a cane, but not killed. His
90-year-old father was attacked with a machete, but survived, he said.

The Kikuyu, Kenya's
largest ethnic group, are accused of using their dominance of politics
and business to the detriment of others. Odinga is from the Luo tribe,
a smaller but still major tribe that says it has been marginalized.