Kenya vows action to stop killings

Kenya today pledged tougher action to rein in post-election violence that threatens to spiral out of control, in the east African nation's darkest moment since independence in 1963.

US envoy Jendayi Frazer said today the violence in Kenya's Rift Valley is "clear ethnic cleansing," aimed at chasing out President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu people.

Protests over President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election in the December 27th vote have degenerated into cycles of killing between rival tribes, and there is evidence of gangs being increasingly well organised on both sides.

The top US diplomat for Africa urged the political rivals to forge a compromise at mediation led by former UN chief Kofi Annan and said ethnic retaliation had "gone too far".

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.

"Democracy is not defended by killing people and those who are behind the violence will be held to account in the future," British prime minister Gordon Brown told parliament in London.

Kenyan internal security minister George Saitoti said police would tolerate no more violence and would ensure the country's roads and railways, economic lifelines for neighbouring nations, would remain open.

Kenya has been convulsed in violence following a disputed re-election of Kibaki in December, with more than 800 people killed. Much of the fighting has been between ethnic groups, but Frazer said she did not consider the eruption of the clashes in Kenya a genocide.

Agencies

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