Police report nine killed in ethnic clashes

The Kenyan police on Tuesday dismissed reports that over 40 people had been killed in inter-clan fighting between Somali and Borana tribesmen at Isiolo, in the Samburu District of Central Kenya, earlier this week. Nine people were killed, including three police officers who tried to quell the clashes on Sunday and Monday, and 13 were admitted to hospital with injuries, police spokesman Peter Kimanthi told the Kenya Television Network (KTN). Initial news reports had put the death toll between 40 and 70 after fierce fighting with modern weaponry, which was reported to have started on Sunday night at the West Gate of Samburu/Shaba National reserve and continued for more than 30 hours. The attack was launched by some 400 heavily-armed bandits who attacked a village 15 km from Isiolo town and made away with some 2,000 cattle as well as goats and camels, Kimanthi told KTN. The attack was an expression of tension between the Somali, Borana and Samburu communities in the area, particularly since mid-1999 when the current drought led Somali nomads to move their herds into the area in search of water and grazing which indigenous populations consider to be theirs, news organisations reported. At the root of the problem was that the colonial Trustland Act, that established community boundaries and collective use rights of land, could not legislate due to the pressure of rising human and livestock populations, the ‘Daily Nation’ newspaper stated on Tuesday.