Red Cross volunteer says 50 people burned to death in Kenya church

Source: AP

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A mob torched a church sheltering hundreds of Kenyans fleeing post-election violence on Tuesday, killing as many as 50 people. The opposition leader said the government was guilty of «genocide» as the violence raged on.

A Red Cross volunteer reported the casualties after counting the bodies at the church in Eldoret, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) from the capital, Nairobi. She asked that her name not be used for fear of reprisals.

Read more: http://www.pr-inside.com/red-cross-volunteer-says-50-people-r367231.htm

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Another report from Radio New Zealand
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200801020555/bodies_found_in_burned_kenyan_church

Residents say about 200 people were hiding in the church in the town of Eldoret. Dozens are reported to have been taken to hospital with severe burns.

The victims were mostly Kikuyus from President Mwai Kibaki's ethnic group, who have fled their homes in the area in fear for their lives.

A Catholic priest in Eldoret says up to 5,000 people are in the main cathedral, and thousands in other churches. Father Paul Brennan says houses are being burned and it has been too dangerous to go outside and count the dead.

How the fuck can we sit still for the slaughter of thousands and thousands of people who's only crime is being alive? Why will not the UN or some force go in and restore order? Protect the people. It's the innocent and the defenseless who always suffer the most. And cosmically sad, this even in the face of all the promises of 'never again' after finding the ovens in Poland and and the Ukraine and Croatia.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/21d6042c-b742-11dc-aa38-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Guests at the Kisumu hotel had not expected to spend quite so much time in each other's company. Events, however, intervened in the form of riots that exploded in the Kenyan opposition stronghold on Saturday as the city's residents sensed electoral victory was about to be snatched from their candidate's grasp.

On the previous evening, it had appeared that Raila Odinga, son of Luo leader Oginga Odinga, had the election in the bag. Kisumu's inhabitants, who belong mainly to the Luo tribe and accord Raila near god-like status, knew better.

The deserted morning streets were the giveaway. Once at the heart of a thriving sugar, cotton and fish trade, Kisumu is in the economic doldrums. Its prospects were about to get a whole lot grimmer. In the slums, supporters of Raila's ODM movement were taking out their fury on residents from the rival Kikuyu and Kisii tribes suspected of voting for the government.

The blue waters of Lake Victoria, framed by the jewel-green Maseno hills, glittered enticingly. But the smoke rising from burning barricades in the city centre lent the scene a revolutionary flavour. "Close the door," shouted a female security guard as guests spotted young men running towards the hotel, fleeing a police charge.


~~~~~~~~

A historical note. The Mau Mau were Kikuyu determined to prevent the Luo from gaining power in Kenya. In the west the Mau Mau were portrayed a assassins of the white population. They were not interested in the whites, they were focused on killing Luo. Jomo Kenyatta was the head of the Mau Mau.

(snip)
Michela Wrong, an author and journalist, told Al Jazeera that although the violence was taking place along ethnic lines it was really about the divisions between rich and poor.

"That's the ugly surface of a much more profound split. There is a sense that this was an elitist government, it was a government that was really only interested itself, in its own particular group," she said.

"They were doling out jobs to their own people, all the key ministeries were in the hands of that group but at the same time were ignoring the needs of the poor." 
(snip)

from Al Jazeero:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/98360B3F-014D-4CFF-8661-828E2A7AF64A.htm

Often it seems reports of 'tribal conflict' gloss over economic and classs issues, IMHO.

Can you imagine, 5,000 people crammed into 1 CHURCH. How is that even possible?
They must be absolutely terrified, hiding out in the only sanctuary they can think of.
This is really bad.

And I see this really registers on Bush's radar screen.

and pointless , :cry:

Source: Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya - A mob torched a church where hundreds had sought refuge Tuesday, and witnesses said dozens of people — including children — were burned alive or hacked to death with machetes in ethnic violence that followed Kenya's disputed election.

The killing of up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret brought the death toll from four days of rioting to more than 275, raising fears of further unrest in what has been one of Africa's most stable democracies.

The latest violence recalled scenes from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when more than a half-million people were killed. The question facing Kenya is whether the politicians will lose control of the mobs, triggering a civil war.

President Mwai Kibaki, who was swiftly inaugurated for a second term Sunday after a vote that critics said was rigged, called for a meeting with his political opponents — a significant softening of tone for a man who rarely speaks to the press and who vowed to crack down on rioters.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080102/ap_on_re_af/kenya_elections

sometimes I wish the world would stop so I could get off.

How horrible!

unbelievable

a person and make them suffer till the die.

:shrug:

Kibaki step down till this election issue is settled, please for the sake of the country.

It's war zone, how will Kenya recover after the dust settles.

And where the fuck is foreign help?

God help us and rest the souls of those who have been killed

:cry:

...that, if they were in a church, they must have been Christians, and thus deserved to be killed. :sarcasm:

Or Satanists, or Pagans, etc.

You're more likely to find that at freeperville, with it being the poor persecuted Christians.

I'm sure they blame the U.S.'s undocumented immigrants for this on Lou Dobbs. :sarcasm:

and am sick to my stomach.