By Tom Odula (CP)
Two people died and 15 others were seriously wounded after machete-wielding rioters broke into violence Saturday over ethnic tensions in Nairobi’s largest slum, officials said.
The violence began after a dozen youths from the Nubian ethnic group were hired to demolish trading stalls in the Kibera slum on behalf of a church that believed the stalls were blocking its path, said Mohammad Gore, a member of a local council.
Later, Luhya tribesmen and traders retaliated by hacking to death a Nubian man in his mid-20s, Gore said.
Nubian youths then attacked people indiscriminately despite pleas from religious leaders for calm. A second person was killed, said Evans Ogwankwa, a local commissioner.
“These (the Nubian youths) are criminals and they should dealt with as such,” said Gore, who is also Nubian.
Andrew Otieno, a doctor at the Makina Clinic in Kibera, said four victims of machete violence had been brought to his clinic, he said. Several shacks were set on fire.
Nubians and Luhya have clashed before. Paramilitary police were patrolling the slum, Gore said, but officials feared Saturday’s violence could flare into a larger conflict.
Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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