Word: eldoret
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...first sign of trouble comes around two hours from Eldoret in the hills of Kenya's Rift Valley. Several pine trees have been felled across the road, forcing a detour through the forest. A few minutes later, we come across a road-sign barrier bent across the highway. "You cannot imagine that this is Kenya," mutters Preston, my driver. We come to several more roadblocks manned by men sitting by the side of the road. Their breath smells of banana beer, and they want money and news of Nairobi. Some of them check Preston's tribe. I congratulate myself...
Preston, an American colleague, and I are driving to Eldoret, the vortex of the tribal violence that has swept Kenya. Four days ago, a mob surrounded Kyamba church just outside Eldoret where hundreds of Kikuyu villagers had sought shelter. The mob barricaded the church doors with mattresses and set them alight. The flames spread through the building and, according to reports at the time, between 30 and 50 people were burned alive before the fire burst through the doors and the rest were able to escape. The Kikuyu, the biggest of Kenya's 42 tribes, became targets after the Kikuyu...
...outskirts of Eldoret, we come to a different kind of checkpoint, manned by the Kenyan military police. Inside it along the road into town, thousands of people are dragging suitcases and huddling in groups. Families are camped by the roadside, hanging their washing on fences. At the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, Nickson Oira, 28, an assistant coordinator for the diocese says up to 9,000 people have sought shelter on the grounds. A further 50,000 are scattered at other refugee points across the town. Up to 20 Kikuyu villages around Eldoret are now deserted, says Oira...
Talk like that is raising the fear that Kenya is teetering on the edge of tribal war. By Jan. 2, after four days of rioting across this East African nation, some 300 people had been killed and 70,000 had fled their homes. In the town of Eldoret, a mob set fire to a church in which hundreds of Kikuyu had sought refuge, burning 50 of them alive. Police bullets have claimed dozens more lives...
...days, according to Kenya Human Rights Commission and the International Federation for Human Rights. Tens of thousands have left their homes, with many others pouring over the border into Uganda. On Tuesday, a mob set fire to a church where hundreds of Kikuyu were sheltering in the town of Eldoret, burning 50 alive. The fear is that the last four days may be a taste of worse to come. Thursday will see an unprecedented showdown between the government and the opposition in Nairobi's city center. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for a million of his supporters to converge...