Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:57:01 -0800 (PST)



A Kenyan opposition MP has been shot dead as the country's security forces struggle to contain escalating post-election violence.Mugabe Were, a member of parliament from the Orange Democratic Movement of defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga, was shot dead by gunmen outside his Nairobi home.

Two gunmen shot Were as he drove up to the gate of his house in suburban Nairobi just after midnight local time, police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said.

"We are treating it as a murder but we are not ruling out anything including political motives," he said. "We are urging everyone to remain calm."

Heavily-armed Kenyan army soldiers patrolled the volatile Rift Valley capital Nakuru on Tuesday while paramilitary police guarded the town of Naivasha, the new epicentre of tribal fighting. Police said almost 50 people have been killed in the past 24 hours, many hacked to death or shot by police trying to quell machete and arson attacks in the two flashpoint western towns, taking the overall toll since last month's disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki to more than 900.

More than a quarter of a million people have been displaced by the violence, which started as protests over the vote tallying - which local and foreign observers said was flawed - but latent ethnic tensions and economic and land disputes have since come to the boil.

The upsurge in violence, largely in the western Rift Valley province, has undermined the latest mediation efforts, led by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, to try to resolve the political deadlock since Kibaki's disputed re-election.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Kenyan leaders must work together to reach a political agreement to end the violence before it goes "from bad to worse".

The European Union warned it would cut aid to Kenya unless Kibaki and Odinga, who claims he was robbed of victory, showed they were seeking a solution to the crisis.

Commonwealth chief Don McKinnon said he was disturbed by the continuing post-election violence but said most members wanted to help Kenya out of its turmoil rather than suspend it from their club. He admitted that "clearly real problems" persisted despite Annan's mediation efforts but said in an interview in Washington: "No one who has been there so far has made any difference."

Kenyan police have been heavily criticised by the public for failing to stop the upsurge in tribal violence in the Rift Valley.

Members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe suffered heavily in initial attacks from members of Odinga's Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, but have since carried out numerous revenge attacks.

Finance Minister Amos Kimunya used a visit to Nairobi on Monday by Britain's minister for Africa, Lord Mark Malloch Brown, to claim that London had recognised Kibaki's government. London quickly disputed that contention, however.

"The UK's view is that the results of the election are disputed, and that there needs to be now a process to resolve that and, as the Foreign Secretary (David Miliband) said, political power-sharing needs to move forward," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

        - Sent by Gitomeh Njoroge
          Source: Associated Press