KENYA-VIOLENCE-SLUM

A man accused of being a member of a feared slum gang (L) tries to get away from being attacked by an angry mob of people, mostly belonging to the Luo tribe, who had ealier in the day had set a bus on fire and had clashed with police in the Mathare slum of Nairobi on Feburary 20, 2008. Police overnight descended on the capital’s Mathare slums and evicted dozens of families from Odinga’s Luo tribe who had refused to pay rent over the past months, local police commander Jasper Ombati told reporters. But residents said police descended on the volatile shantytown without warning and used force to evict the families, beating women and children who had occupied the four highrise apartment blocks. Fighting erupted at about 4.00 am, which resulted in the burning of a minibus and many casualties.The political crisis has tapped into simmering resentment over land, poverty and the dominance of the Kikuyu, Kibaki’s tribe, in Kenyan politics and business since independence from Britain in 1963. AFP PHOTO/Walter ASTRADA

Sponsored