Opposition Mp Shot Dead Amid Continuing Kenyan Chaos

Gunmen killed an opposition MP today as groups of armed youths roamed the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, with little sign that violence is abating after last month's disputed election.

Mugabe Were was shot by two gunmen as he drove to his house in suburban Nairobi, police said.

"We are treating it as a murder but we are not ruling out anything, including political motives," Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. "We are urging everyone to remain calm."

But residents of Kibera, a Nairobi slum, said houses were being set ablaze near a railway that generally divides members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe from inhabitants of opposition leader Raila Odinga's Luo ethnic group.

Were was one of the opposition MPs who won seats in the December legislative vote, held at the same time as the disputed presidential election.

The killing came as thousands of machete-wielding youths from Kikuyu and Luo tribes hunted each other down in western Kenya's Rift Valley, burning homes, blocking roads with burning tires and clashing with outnumbered police.

Thousands of people have fled Rift Valley towns where more than 100 people have been killed since Friday.

Outside a country club in Naivasha, a town famous for its flower industry and tourism - the country's top two foreign exchange earners - only a handful of police separated about 1,000 Kikuyu men armed with machetes and clubs from hundreds of Luo men who were forced from their homes at the weekend. The Kikuyus said they were avenging earlier attacks elsewhere in the country by pro-opposition Luo and Kalenjin youths.

Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement insists the December 27 presidential election was rigged in Kibaki's favor, a view shared by most western nations and all local and foreign observer groups.

Kenya has been plunged into its biggest crisis since independence by the subsequent violence, which has seen more than 800 people killed in clashes with police and ethnic attacks that have brought to the surface long-held tensions over land, the economy and political power.

Unrest yesterday spread as far as Lake Victoria, where thousands of youths poured into the downtown area of Kisumu, barricading roads and burning tires. Several deaths were reported.

Joshua Nyamori, an opposition activist, said the latest demonstrations were sparked "by the killing of innocent Luos in Naivasha", which is 65 miles west of Nairobi. On Sunday, at least 11 people, mainly Luos, were killed there when their locked house was set on fire by a Kikuyu gang.

Deaths were also reported in Burnt Forest and Kericho, the heart of the tea industry, while a hotel and two large wholesale shops were razed in Kakamega.

"What is alarming about the last few days is that there are evidently hidden hands organizing it [the violence] now," said Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, the British minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, during a visit to Kenya yesterday.

Despite the gravity of the situation - apart from the loss of life, Kenya's economy is taking a huge hit - Kibaki has shown no sign of a willingness to compromise. Instead, he has succeeded in strongly alienating the countries that give him the most financial support: the United States and Britain.

After Kibaki's meeting yesterday with Malloch-Brown, who signaled his support for the mediation efforts led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, the presidential press service released a statement entitled: "British government recognizes President Kibaki and his government".

A spokesperson for the British High Commission said that the claim was patently false. Kibaki's assertion yesterday that a £1m donation from Britain would be used to resettle people displaced by the violence - who are mainly Kikuyus - was also described as "wrong and manipulated" by a diplomatic source.

On Sunday, Annan circulated a draft of his proposed agenda for negotiations between Kibaki and Odinga. A spokesman for Odinga said yesterday the document was "something that we can work with as a start". The government's position is unknown, but Kibaki's spokesman said yesterday that he was likely to attend an African Union summit that starts in Addis Ababa on Thursday, meaning any negotiations may not begin until next week.

Until then, Kenyans are bracing themselves for further violence. In attacks that appear unrelated to the election chaos, but in keeping with the lawlessness in parts of the country, three foreigners have been killed in coastal towns in the last week. Graham Warren, 64, a Briton, was killed by robbers at his home in Watamu, north of Mombasa. In the southern resort of Diani Beach, two Germans were hacked to death by a gang that followed them into the house where they were staying.