WASHINGTON (ABP) — At least 30 people burned to death in a church in Kenya Jan. 1 after an election dispute touched off ethnic strife, according to multiple news reports.
No reports have indicated religious overtones to the unrest in the heavily Christian country.
The dead, who had been barricaded inside the church, were members of the country's dominant Kikuyu tribe. They were among hundreds that sought shelter in an Assembly of God church near the western Kenyan city of Eldoret. The city is a stronghold of the nation's main minority tribe, the Luo. According to witnesses, a mob barricaded the church and started the fire with gasoline-soaked mattresses. While many escaped through open windows, at least 30 victims and possibly dozens more were trapped in the flames.
The incident was the most violent of several that have erupted in Kenyan cities since a hotly contested presidential election. Sitting Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, narrowly defeated opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is a Luo.
Odinga's followers have alleged that voting fraud perpetrated by pro-Kibaki polling officials tilted the election's outcome. The election took place Dec. 27, and Kibaki was sworn in Dec. 30. Riots in urban centers across the country quickly ensued, causing more than 300 deaths as of Jan. 2, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Kikuyu have dominated Kenya's political and business sectors since the nation gained independence in 1963. Members of the Luo and other smaller tribes have complained that the government discriminates against them.
AFP, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the New York Times and other news outlets with a Kenyan presence reported Jan 2 that many Kikuyu living in Luo parts of the country were fleeing their homes.
Some observers said they saw disturbing echoes of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in the church burning. That conflict was rooted in ethnic divisions, and many of the victims were massacred after they sought refuge in churches.
A long history of stability and tolerance between its mosaic of ethnic groups has made Kenya one of the most prosperous nations in sub-Saharan Africa. Its economy has grown steadily in recent years, much of it due to increased tourism by Westerners. Nairobi and other large cities have rapidly growing professional classes and are home to chic hotels and nightclubs.
But much of the country remains desperately poor, with most residents surviving on the equivalent of only a few dollars a week. Much of the nation's poverty is concentrated among tribes other than the Kikuyu.
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