Kenya crisis talks suspended after opposition MP shot dead

31 January, 2008

NAIROBI (AFP) - Kofi Annan suspended Thursday crisis talks aimed at ending Kenya's political crisis after an opposition lawmaker was shot dead by a policeman, triggering further clashes which killed at least two.

"We have postponed this afternoon's session and we will work all day tomorrow so that the leaders can attend to urgent matters and call their constituents," the former UN chief told reporters in Nairobi.

The talks were the first between the camps of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga since December polls which the latter claims he won.

Police said David Kimutai Too from Odinga's opposition Orange Democratic Movement was killed in the western town of Eldoret, making him the second MP to die in three days.

They described the incident as a crime of passion unrelated to the recent political violence.

But violent demonstrations soon followed in the western town -- killing at least two -- and in nearby Kericho and Kisumu, with police firing tear gas on protesters who were blocking roads and lighting fires.

"Two people were killed in Eldoret in the demonstrations but police are trying to establish what happened," a police commander told AFP, after earlier reporting six injured in battles with protesters.

Demonstrators razed part of Nyagacho slums in the outskirts of Kericho, which is near the hometown of the slain lawmaker.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Ethiopia, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Kibaki at an African Union summit and warned that the violence in Kenya could spiral out of control unless quick action was taken.

"These clashes are growing along ethnic lines. If political leaders fail to act responsibly, the situation could escalate beyond control," Ban said, adding that he would travel to Kenya on Friday to meet Odinga.

African Union commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare called on the main protagonists to work together towards a peaceful solution.

"If you burn Kenya, what will be left for you to govern?" said .

The killing of Too followed the slaying of lawmaker Melitus Mugabe Were in Nairobi on Tuesday, which sparked violent unrest in flashpoint western regions and slums in the capital.

Almost 1,000 have already died and up to 300,000 have been displaced since Kibaki's re-election.

Odinga said the killings were "part of a plot" to reduce his Orange Democratic Movement's (ODM) majority in parliament.

The ODM secured 99 seats in the legislative elections that coincided with the presidential poll, making it the largest single party but short of an overall majority. Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) won 43 seats.

A police commander said Too and his girlfriend were shot by a traffic policeman.

"He was with a girl who is a police officer. He was shot by another policeman believed to be her boyfriend," the commander said.

Kenyan police received shoot-to-kill orders Wednesday in a bid to stem weeks of unrest.

Odinga called for the orders to be cancelled immediately, calling them "a sign of a government that has run amok."

Odinga has refused to recognise the legitimacy of Kibaki's presidency and his party has pressed for an electoral re-run, but the government has instead insisted on dialogue.

Members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe suffered heavily in the first wave of violence at the hands of Odinga's Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, but have since carried out numerous revenge attacks.

The United States' top Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer said Wednesday that the violence in Kenya had involved acts of "ethnic cleansing" and the UN Security Council on Wednesday called for both sides to end the bloodshed.