Nairobi: Nineteen people were killed in clashes in the western Kenyan town of Nakuru, police said today, bringing the toll since Thursday night to 45.

"We recovered nine bodies and nine others died in Nakuru General Hospital," a police commander said. The hospital confirmed the deaths. "One person was killed a few minutes ago," he added. The new deaths brought the toll to 45 in the provincial capital Nakuru since ethnic disputes in western Kenya spread there on Thursday night.

At least 15 people were killed overnight in Nakuru, police said earlier, and four others died in nearby Molo yesterday, pushing the total death toll from a month of violence sparked by disputed presidential polls to close to 800. Authorities imposed an overnight curfew in Nakuru after gangs of rival youths clashed with machetes and bows and arrows yesterday.

Gunshots rung out from the city's southern slums Saturday, and police fired bullets into the air and tear gas to disperse hundreds of machete-welding youths who had erected barriers along highways into the town. Arsonists burned some 30 houses overnight in the north of Nakuru, an AFP correspondent said, and people were still fleeing.

The simmering ethnic tensions were ignited by charges that President Mwai Kibaki stole the December 27 presidential polls from opposition chief Raila Odinga, plunging the nation into violence that displaced a quarter of a million people. Former UN chief Kofi Annan said today he had witnessed "gross and systematic human rights abuses" on a visit to the Rift Valley province in western Kenya.

Source : PTI