US condemns violence in Kenya

Washington, DC, US (PANA) - The United States has condemned what it calls the deadly cycle of recent attacks and reprisals in Kenya's Tana River Delta that has left more than 100 people dead.

In a release by the State Department in Washington, DC, the US urged community leaders and the Kenyan Government to intensify efforts to bring opposing factions together to end the violence and establish peaceful mechanisms to address disputes in the future.

''It is also important that those who have committed crimes are held accountable through transparent, fair, and thorough investigations and trials,'' the statement said.

''Attacks such as those in Tana River threaten to destabilise the surrounding region and rob Kenyan citizens of opportunity. The United States calls on all parties throughout Kenya to address grievances and assert their rights through peaceful means, as provided for in the new constitution, so that all Kenyans may participate in fair and credible elections in March 2013,'' it said.

Most of the victims of the violence, which has pitched the Pokomo and Orma tribes against each other in a deadly dispute over Orma-owned cattle grazing on land the Pokomo claim, were either shot, hacked or burnt to death.

The Kenyan parliament has passed a motion urging the government to deploy troops to quell the violence, after the police seemed incapable of stopping it.

The violence has led to the sack of Livestock and Development Assistant Minister Dhadho Godhana.

In a statement, President Mwai Kibaki said the minister was fired after investigations linked him with the violence in the Tana River Delta.
-0- PANA SEG 13Sept2012