February 04, 2008	Monday	Muharram 25, 1429

NAIROBI, Feb 3: Clashes in western Kenya left 13 people dead, police said on Sunday, taking the weekend death toll to 70 ahead of talks on a roadmap for peace more than a month after disputed elections.

“A total of 13 people were killed overnight,” along the Kisii-Kalenjin tribal border and in nearby areas in Nyamira district in western Kenya, a local police commander said on Sunday, declining to be named.

A photographer said hundreds of fighters armed with bows and arrows and rocks fought pitched battles on Sunday as police struggled to contain them.

Police reported at least 47 new deaths on Saturday, adding to 10 on Friday, as President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga traded further barbs, despite Friday’s tentative first peace accord since the start of the crisis.

The document — overseen by former UN chief Kofi Annan — aimed to end weeks of unrest that has claimed around 1,000 lives, within two weeks.

The new deal called for illegal militias to be disbanded and for the investigation of all related crimes, including those allegedly committed by the police, who have killed scores of people.

Both sides also promised to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis, after 300,000 people have fled their homes.

As thousands languished in makeshift displacement camps across the country, amid reports of rapes and fears of ethnic reprisals, a government newspaper advert reminded Kenyans “you have a right to be wherever you choose in the country.” The political unrest has stirred up latent ethnic clashes, economic and land disputes.

Members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe suffered heavily in the first wave of violence at the hands of Odinga’s Luo tribe and other ethnic groups, but have since carried out numerous revenge attacks.

Police said at least 57 people died on Friday and Saturday in clashes and a police crackdown in Nyanza province, and in Too’s home village of Ainamoi in the Rift Valley province and nearby localities.

While Ainamoi was deserted after a police crackdown Sunday, tension remained high in nearby Nyanza.

Police trailed fighters after they razed more than 100 houses and a primary school, a police commander said, and the trading post of Chepilat was burned down overnight.—AFP