New Kenya deaths as Annan arrives to mediate

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

NAIROBI (AFP) — Nine people were hacked or burned to death in new violence linked to Kenya's political crisis on Tuesday, as former UN secretary general Kofi Annan arrived to revive mediation efforts.

As the African Union and the United Nations condemned rights violations, police fired tear gas at supporters of President Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi, while six separate deaths linked to the unrest were reported in the west of Kenya.

The government and opposition meanwhile stepped up their political standoff by threatening each other with international court action over the violence that erupted after Kibaki's December 27 re-election.

More than 700 people have been killed in the unrest since the election, which opposition leader Raila Odinga says was rigged. The...