UN chief alarmed by mounting Kenya violence

UN chief Ban Ki-moon is alarmed by the mounting violence in Kenya following disputed presidential polls and has warned against provocations during planned protests, his spokeswoman said.

''The Secretary General is increasingly troubled by the escalating tensions and violence'' in the volatile east African country in the aftermath of last week's elections, Michele Montas said in a statement.

Ban was particularly shocked by reports that dozens of civilians sheltering in a church near the western Kenyan town of Eldoret were burned to death yesterday and that more than 300 people have been reported killed in the post-election mayhem, she said.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's narrow re-election victory over his opposition rival Raila Odinga and his swearing in on Sunday sparked violence across the country, much of it along tribal lines, with tit-for-tat killings and targetted arson attacks.

Kibaki belongs to Kenya's largest tribe, the Kikuyu, and his defeated opposition challenger, Raila Odinga, to the second largest, the Luo.

The UN chief reminded ''the government, as well as the political and religious leaders of Kenya of their legal and moral responsibility to protect the innocent, regardless of their racial, religious or ethnic origin.''

Odinga, a flamboyant 62-year-old former political prisoner who led almost all pre-election polls, has vowed to press ahead with a mass rally in Nairobi tomorrow at which he plans to have himself inaugurated the ''people's president.''

Courtesy:ndtv.com
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