US Rips Kenya Opposition Over 'Ethnic Cleansing'

Envoy calls for probe, warns aid under review
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 30, 2008 8:19 AM CST
US Rips Kenya Opposition Over 'Ethnic Cleansing'
Kenyans mainly from the Luo tribe, one armed with a machete, enforce a makeshift roadblock in Kisumu, Kenya, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008. The town of Kisumu is now almost completely ethnically cleansed of Kikuyus, and mobs armed with makeshift weapons erect burning roadblocks and search for the few Kikuyu...   (Associated Press)

The top US envoy to Africa today accused supporters of Kenya's opposition of "clear ethnic cleansing" after violence in the Rift Valley killed hundreds of Kikuyus, who support embattled president Mwai Kibaki. "The aim originally was not to kill, it was to cleanse, it was to push them out" of the valley, Jendayi Frazer told reporters at the African Union summit in Ethiopia. Now, "killing may be the object," she added.

Frazer said the US is reviewing its $540 million in aid to Kenya and is "calling for an investigation" into the violence. There have been charges that some killings between the Kikuyos, and the Luos and  Kalenjin—who support opposition leader Raila Odinga—have been carefully planned. "It's basically everybody versus the Kikuyu now," one man told the Guardian. "Nobody can afford to sleep because of the fighting." Frazer accused both sides of not doing enough to stop the bloodshed. (More Kenyan elections stories.)

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