Hundreds Die in Kenya Inter-Communal Violence This Year - UN

   By George Mwangi 
   Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

NAIROBI--At least 310 people have been killed and more than 220,000 forced to flee their homes in Kenya this year because of inter-communal violence, the United Nations humanitarian office has said.

U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in the first 10 months of the year 310 people had lost their lives, 214 had been injured and just over 220,000 had fled their homes amid a growing number of attacks on civilians and an upsurge in terrorist activity, particularly in areas adjacent to the Kenya-Somalia border.

"Violent conflicts involving pastoralists have become widespread and increasingly severe in the northern Rift Valley and north-eastern regions of Kenya," it said Thursday.

Revenge attacks, competition over land and water resources, cattle rustling, as well as struggles over political representation have resulted in the conflicts in northern Kenya, where Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) and partner Africa Oil Corp. (AOI.T) have made oil discoveries.

Cattle-rustling has been endemic in northern Kenya but in recent years have turned more deadly due to availability of illegal small arms coming in from South Sudan and Somalia.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday fired the interior cabinet secretary Joseph ole Lenku and the police chief David Kimaiyo following an attack claimed by Somalia's al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab rebels in northeast Mandera county that killed 36 quarry workers.

Write to George Mwangi at [e-mail]

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