Kenya mob behead doctor with machete in new violence

Kenya mob behead doctor with machete in new violence - Mirror.co.uk: "A rampaging crowd hacked off a doctor's head with a machete as a fresh wave of tribal turmoil erupted across Kenya yesterday.

The doctor was murdered in a suburb of Nairobi merely because he was from the same Kikuyu tribe as President Kibaki. Witness Sabat Abdullah said the gang dragged him from a clinic "and then cut and cut until his head was off". It was one of scores of tit-for tat killings by rival ethnic gangs that were sparked by the murder of an MP.

Melitus Mugabe Were, an outspoken opponent of President Kibaki, was ambushed near his home and shot in the eyes.

Within hours reprisal attacks had begun. Western observers in Nairobi reported seeing dead bodies with appalling stab wounds. One man lay dying after being forcibly circumcised and then hacked with a machete. In the Rift Valley about 5,000 people set light to homes. And in the city of Naivasha army helicopters divebombed a mob of 600 Kikuyus who were trying to attack rival Luos.


President Kibaki, whose hotly-disputed election win on December 27 triggered the initial violence, appealed in vain for calm.

36MILLION

The population of Kenya, which is split into 40 ethnic groups

1963

Year Kenya gained independence from Britain after 80 years

[bth: note the army helicopter attacked the mob of Kikuyus which is the President's tribe. One would have thought it would be the other way around.]