A police officer chases a protester in the town of Nderi, north of Nairobi. Photo / Reuters
Kenyan leaders have vowed to act tougher to reign in post-election violence threatening to spiral out of control.
Protests over President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election in last month's vote have degenerated into cycles of killing between rival tribesin the east African nation's darkest moment since independencein 1963.
There
is increasing evidence of gangs being well organised on both sides.
Internal Security Minister George Saitoti said police would tolerate no more violence and would ensure roads and rail lines would remain open.
"We have decided to act tough this time. We are not going to allow criminals and hooligans to run around," he said.
The top United States diplomat for Africa urged the political rivals to forge a compromise at mediation led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan and said ethnic retaliation had "gone too far".
"There has been an organised effort to push out people from Rift Valley ... It is clearly ethnic cleansing," US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said in Ethiopia.
Most of the deaths since the election came in attacks that at first targeted Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, whose members are now taking revenge on pro-opposition tribes.
Police have also killed close to 100 protesters backing opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Angry youths have set up roadblocks all over the Rift Valley in the past month, squeezing transport into neighbouring Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan and hurting their economies - dependent on Kenya's Mombasa port.
Announcing a US$14 million ($18.2 million) fund to help Kenya's 300,000 refugees from the violence, Kibaki also talked tough.
"We will not hesitate to take strong measures against those who attempt to create or perpetuate situations of insecurity," he said. "We will not tolerate those who have no respect for human life or private property."
The opposition Orange Democratic Movement accused the Government of secretly instituting a shoot-to-kill policy, something police have denied.
"I urge the President himself to take action to rescind the order, because it is illegal," Odinga said.
"It is giving the police licence to lynch our people."
- REUTERS
