BEVERLY HILLS, August 13, (THEWILL) – Kenyan police killed 11 people in a crackdown on protesters as anger at the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta erupted in the western city of Kisumu and slums around the capital.
Rueters, quoting a security official, revealed that the bodies of nine young men shot dead overnight in Nairobi’s Mathare slum had been brought to the city morgue.
The official said the men were killed during police anti-looting operations.
Separately, a young girl in Mathare was killed by police firing “sporadic shots”, a witness said, while a government official said one man had been killed.
The run-down neighbourhood is loyal to 72-year-old opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose party rejectedTuesday’svote as a “charade”.
The unrest erupted moments after Kenya’s election commission announced lateon Fridaythat Kenyatta, 55, had secured a second five-year term in office, in spite of opposition allegations that the tally was a fraud.
Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i said the trouble was localised and blamed it on “criminal elements” rather than legitimate political protest.
Kenya’s main monitoring group, ELOG, saidon Saturdayits tally matched the official outcome, undermining Odinga’s NASA coalition which provided no evidence for its rejection of the result on allegations of fraud.
In addition to the deaths, Kisumu’s main hospital was treating four people for gunshot wounds and six who had been beaten by Kenyan police, its records showed.
One man, 28-year-old Moses Oduor, was inside his home in the impoverished district of Obunga when police conducting house-to-house raids dragged him out of his bedroom and beat him with clubs.
“He was not out fighting them. He was rescued by my sister who lives next to him.
“She came outside screaming at the police, asking why they are beating people,” his brother, Charles Ochieng said, speaking on behalf of a dazed Oduor.
More shooting was heard outside the hospitalon Saturdaymorning. In Nairobi, armed police units backed by water cannon moved through the rubble-strewn streets of Kibera, another pro-Odinga slum.
Interior minister Matiang’i defended the police against accusations of brutality.
“Let us be honest – there are no demonstrations happening,” he told reporters.
“Individuals or gangs that are looting shops, that want to endanger lives, that are breaking into people’s businesses, those are not demonstrators.
They are criminals. And we expect police to deal with criminals how criminals should be dealt with.”
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