Ethnic violence linked to politics

Renewed ethnic tensions in the Gucha, Transmara and Migori districts of western Kenya, in which several people have been killed since last week, have been linked to crucial presidential and parliamentary elections expected later this year.

On Sunday, two people were killed and 10 injured when youths from Gucha and Transmara were engaged in running battles along the border of the two districts, the 'Daily Nation' reported. This brought to eight the number of people killed in the area over the past two weeks.

In other incidents, at least two people were killed and seven injured at the weekend when a gang of 100 men, armed with crude weapons, attacked worshippers at a Catholic diocese in neighbouring Kisii district, according to the Catholic Information Service for East Africa (CISA. The attack followed recent political tension between supporters of the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) party and Ford-People, a rival political party, CISA reported on Monday.

The National Council of the Churches of Kenya (NCCK) and the Peace and Development Network (Peace Net) - organisations which run peace initiatives in regions prone to cattle rustling - told IRIN they were awaiting reports from monitoring teams they had sent to assess the situation.

A humanitarian source based in Gucha told IRIN on Wednesday that the current ethnic tensions in the region were not just a normal problem resulting from cattle rustling - a common phenomenon in the area - but were due to political problems that typically occurred during election periods.

"We have reason to worry that this year's election is likely to be accompanied by incidences of violence," the source said. "The tensions escalating everywhere are a problem resulting from political temperatures taking their toll on Kenyans."

Incumbent President Daniel arap Moi is due to step down and there is controversy over his preferred successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president.