The official death toll from post-election violence in Kenya rose to 575 on Sunday as rights groups accused police of employing
an unofficial ``shoot to kill’’ policy against protesters.
Hundreds of bodies have been counted since violence and ethnic warfare erupted in the East African nation following the disputed Dec 27 presidential election, Kenya Red Cross Society spokesman Anthony Mwangi said.
But some fear the real figure is even higher.
“My greatest fear is that when the authorities and rescuers have combed every village, they will discover that many, many people have been massacred,’’ Mutuma Mathiu, managing editor of The Sunday Nation, wrote in an editorial.
“I have heard about the bodies of children, some half burnt, others half-eaten by animals, rotting in the killing fields that Kenya has become,’’ he wrote. Kenya’s
opposition, meanwhile, called for three days of nationwide protests starting on Wednesday following the collapse of international mediation to break a deadlock between
president Mwai Kibaki, who claimed election victory, and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has alleged fraud. African Union chairman President John Kufuor of Ghana and US envoy Jendayi Frazer failed last week to persuade Kibaki and Odingato agree even to meet.
Frazer said on Saturday that Kibaki and Odinga must meet and acknowledge “ serious irregularities’’ in the vote count.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected by Tuesday to mediate. The British Foreign Office has said Annan will work with Graca Machel, wife of Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela, and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.