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Opposition Lawmaker Killed in Kenya

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Young boys stand near the burned out wreck of a car that was set on fire during ethnic clashes in Naivasha some 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Nairobi, Kenya, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008. Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69. Houses were blazing in the center of Naivasha, a tourist gateway. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Young boys stand near the burned out wreck of a car that was set on fire during ethnic clashes in Naivasha some 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Nairobi, Kenya, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008. Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69. Houses were blazing in the center of Naivasha, a tourist gateway. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo) (Karel Prinsloo - AP)
A Kikuyu man lights a cigarette whilst carrying his traditional knobkerry weapon, as residents arm themselves, following an earlier raid on the village in which a number of houses were burned, in the rural village of Mutakaniob, near Nakuru, Kenya, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008. Ethnic clashes convulsed western Kenya on Sunday as gangs fought with crude weapons and set homes ablaze in this tourist gateway, pushing the death toll from a month of violence over the country's flawed presidential election to nearly 800. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A Kikuyu man lights a cigarette whilst carrying his traditional knobkerry weapon, as residents arm themselves, following an earlier raid on the village in which a number of houses were burned, in the rural village of Mutakaniob, near Nakuru, Kenya, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008. Ethnic clashes convulsed western Kenya on Sunday as gangs fought with crude weapons and set homes ablaze in this tourist gateway, pushing the death toll from a month of violence over the country's flawed presidential election to nearly 800. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (Ben Curtis - AP)
A Kikuyu boy holds a machete as residents arm themselves, following an earlier raid on the village in which a number of houses were burned, in the rural village of Mutakaniob, near Nakuru, in Kenya, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008. Ethnic clashes convulsed western Kenya on Sunday as gangs fought with crude weapons and set homes ablaze in this tourist gateway, pushing the death toll from a month of violence over the country's flawed presidential election to nearly 800. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A Kikuyu boy holds a machete as residents arm themselves, following an earlier raid on the village in which a number of houses were burned, in the rural village of Mutakaniob, near Nakuru, in Kenya, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008. Ethnic clashes convulsed western Kenya on Sunday as gangs fought with crude weapons and set homes ablaze in this tourist gateway, pushing the death toll from a month of violence over the country's flawed presidential election to nearly 800. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (Ben Curtis - AP)
Kikuyu men man a burning barricade during ethnic clashes, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008 in Naivasha, Kenya. Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69. Houses were blazing in the center of Naivasha, a tourist gateway. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Kikuyu men man a burning barricade during ethnic clashes, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008 in Naivasha, Kenya. Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69. Houses were blazing in the center of Naivasha, a tourist gateway. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo) (Karel Prinsloo - AP)
Residents flee with their belongings during ethnic clashes, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008 in Naivasha, Kenya. Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69. Houses were blazing in the center of Naivasha, a tourist gateway.(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Residents flee with their belongings during ethnic clashes, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008 in Naivasha, Kenya. Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69. Houses were blazing in the center of Naivasha, a tourist gateway.(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo) (Karel Prinsloo - AP)
A Kenyan soldier removes a burning roadblock, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, Naivasha, Kenya, during ethnic clashes. Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69. Houses were blazing in the center of Naivasha, a tourist gateway. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
A Kenyan soldier removes a burning roadblock, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, Naivasha, Kenya, during ethnic clashes. Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the death toll from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to at least 69. Houses were blazing in the center of Naivasha, a tourist gateway. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo) (Karel Prinsloo - AP)
Kenyan men from the Luo tribe armed with machetes and rocks enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. In Kisumu on Monday angry young men blocked roads out of the town, set some houses and buses ablaze, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to a witness. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Kenyan men from the Luo tribe armed with machetes and rocks enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. In Kisumu on Monday angry young men blocked roads out of the town, set some houses and buses ablaze, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to a witness. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (Ben Curtis - AP)
Kenyan men from the Luo tribe armed with machetes and rocks enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. In Kisumu on Monday angry young men blocked roads out of the town, set some houses and buses ablaze, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to a witness. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Kenyan men from the Luo tribe armed with machetes and rocks enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. In Kisumu on Monday angry young men blocked roads out of the town, set some houses and buses ablaze, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to a witness. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (Ben Curtis - AP)
Kenyan men from the Luo tribe enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. In Kisumu on Monday angry young men blocked roads out of the town, set some houses and buses ablaze, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to a witness. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Kenyan men from the Luo tribe enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. In Kisumu on Monday angry young men blocked roads out of the town, set some houses and buses ablaze, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to a witness. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (Ben Curtis - AP)
Kenyan men from the Luo tribe armed with machetes and rocks enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. In Kisumu on Monday angry young men blocked roads out of the town, set some houses and buses ablaze, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to a witness. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Kenyan men from the Luo tribe armed with machetes and rocks enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. In Kisumu on Monday angry young men blocked roads out of the town, set some houses and buses ablaze, and one driver was burned alive in his minibus, according to a witness. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (Ben Curtis - AP)

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By KATHARINE HOURELD
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 29, 2008; 2:51 AM

KISUMU, Kenya -- Gunmen killed an opposition lawmaker in Nairobi early Tuesday, an attack likely to stoke the ethnic fighting that has gripped Kenya since last month's disputed presidential election.

As with the gangs that have killed rivals and torched homes in western Kenya, groups of armed youths began gathering after the shooting in the capital's Mathare and Kibera slums. Since the Dec. 27 election, the death toll has soared over 800.

Two gunmen shot opposition lawmaker Mugabe Were as he drove to his house in suburban Nairobi, police said, adding they did not yet know if the political turmoil had motivated the slaying.

"We are treating it as a murder but we are not ruling out anything including political motives," Kenya police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. "We are urging everyone to remain calm."

But a resident of Kibera, Teddy Njoroge, said houses were being set ablaze near a railway that generally divides members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe from inhabitants of opposition leader Raila Odinga's Luo ethnic group. Flames and smoke rose from one area of Kibera.

"They have decided to revenge this MP," Njoroge said of the member of parliament.

Were was among a slew of opposition members who won seats in the December legislative vote, held at the same time as the presidential election.

The killing came a day after thousands of machete-wielding youths hunted down Kikuyus in western Kenya's Rift Valley, burning homes and buses, clashing with police, and blocking roads with blazing tires.

Witnesses described seeing two people pulled from cars and stoned to death, while another was burned alive in a minibus.

"The road is covered in blood. It's chaos. Luos are hunting Kikuyus for revenge," said Baraka Karama, a journalist for independent Kenya Television in Kisumu.

The Rift Valley is home to the Kalenjin and Masai ethnic groups. British colonizers seized large tracts of land to cultivate fertile farms there. After independence in 1963, President Jomo Kenyatta flooded reclaimed farmlands with his Kikuyu people, creating deep-seated resentment that exists to this day.

Kikuyus also are resented for their domination of politics and the economy, a success cemented by endemic corruption and a patronage system where politicians favor their own ethnic group.


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© 2008 The Associated Press