Kenyan Rivals Sign Pact To End Violence

Kenya's rival sides said Friday they had agreed to take action to end monthlong violence from a disputed presidential election, but the death toll mounted when police fired on mobs setting homes and businesses ablaze in the west of the country.

Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general who is mediating, said the sides had agreed to tackle within a week the most pressing issues - including resolving the immediate political crisis. Both sides called for illegal militias to be disbanded and for the investigation of all crimes connected to the violence, including alleged excessive force by police.

"The first (step) is to take immediate action to stop the violence and restore fundamental liberties," Annan said.

Police in western Kenya fired on armed mobs who set homes and businesses on fire. At least 14 people died in the latest clashes, sparked by a police officer killing an opposition legislator Thursday.

In neighboring Ethiopia, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki told leaders at an African summit that "the security situation in the country is under control."

Annan said he had suggested to Kibaki on Tuesday that "a preventative deployment of the military may be necessary." He added, "Everyone would have to admit that the police are a bit over-stretched."

British Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch Brown, also at the African summit, agreed about deploying Kenya's army, saying police "at this stage seem to be seen as no longer neutral and behind some of the killings."

Thursday's shooting of legislator David Kimutai Too added to the distrust of police, and police stations were targeted in three western towns.

In Too's home village, 3,000 people armed with bows and arrows, spears, clubs and machetes killed a police officer, said police commander Peter Aliwa. The mob accused the officer of wounding a civilian when police opened fire Thursday on a crowd protesting Too's death. It was the first police casualty reported in a month of bloodshed in which police have acknowledged killing scores of people.

In another western village, six people were hacked to death and two were killed with poisoned arrows, witnesses said. Nyamira District Commissioner Samuel Njora confirmed the deaths at Ikonge, 240 miles west of Nairobi. He said members of the Kalenjin tribe was killing members of the Kisii tribe, blaming them for the legislator's death because they are considered government allies. The fighting there was continuing, he said.

More than 800 people have been killed and 300,000 forced from their homes in violence that degenerated into ethnic clashes over decades-old grudges about land and other resources. It has pitted other tribes against Kibaki's Kikuyu people, who are resented for their long domination of politics and the economy.

The trigger was the announcement that Kibaki had been re-elected despite a vote tally that international and local election observers all agree was rigged.

Kibaki's address to African leaders indicated his distance from opposition leader Raila Odinga. Kibaki repeated that he was rightfully elected and suggested his opponents take their grievances to the courts. The opposition has already said the courts are loaded with Kibaki's allies.

"The judiciary in Kenya has over the years arbitrated electoral disputes, and the current one should not be an exception," Kibaki told the summit in a closed session. A text of his speech was distributed to reporters.

He said the opposition's rejection of the courts had the "encouragement and support of some foreign countries" and could only subvert and weaken democratic institutions.

Kibaki blamed the opposition for the violence, saying "the ongoing crisis erupted after the opposition ... went ahead to instigate a campaign of civil unrest and violence. There is overwhelming evidence to indicate that the violence was premeditated, and systematically directed at particular communities (ethnic groups)."

Odinga blamed the government. Both sides had condemned the violence but "there is ample evidence that sections of the security forces are themselves abetting this violence, including through supporting a much-feared militia which relentlessly pursues communities which supported ODM," his party. He made the charges in a letter he gave to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Ban had met with Kibaki in Ethiopia on Thursday.

There was no sign of the violence easing in the western Rift Valley, scene of the worst clashes.

About 20 elders of the Kalenjin tribe, angered by police shootings in their town of Eldoret, blamed the government and vowed vengeance.

"If the government will continue shooting and directing guns at our people, the Kalenjin ... we will rise up in arms," said Zacharia Baruo. The Kalenjin generally support Odinga's party.

"The government has started the war on us and we are ready to fight back," said another elder, Joseph Chumba.

They said police had killed four people and wounded 21 in Eldoret on Thursday. That figure included the slain legislator, Too.

Too was the second anti-government legislator killed this week, prompting Odinga's party to charge there is "an evil scheme" to rob the opposition of its parliamentary majority. Melitus Mugabe Were was shot twice in the head Tuesday in Nairobi. Legislative elections held the same day as the Dec. 27 presidential vote gave Odinga's party 99 seats to 43 for Kibaki's party.

Odinga said the United States had offered to send FBI agents to investigate Were's killing. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said Kenyans "are capable of conducting our own murder investigation."

Police said Too's killing was a crime of passion: He was shot by a traffic police officer who discovered the lawmaker was having an affair with his girlfriend, also a police officer. The girlfriend was slain in the same attack. A Too family spokesman accused the police of a cover-up, saying the lawmaker was not involved with the woman.