Nairobi: At least five people have died in clashes in recent days in western Kenya, police said today, as former UN chief Kofi Annan pressed for a deal to end the crisis sparked by December's elections.

"In the last four days, three people have been killed in Molo and two others in Cherangani area," a police commander said.

Police said they had boosted security in volatile western areas of the east African country that were the scene of some of the worst fighting set off by the disputed December 27 re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, in which more than 1,000 people died and some 300,000 were displaced.

Annan has spent more than a month in Kenya leading talks between the camps of Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claims he was robbed of victory in the widely-contested polls.

Launched by the African Union, Annan's mediation is seen as Kenya's best hope for a political solution to move beyond the violence which saw Kenyans killed by machete-wielding mobs, burnt in churches and driven off their land.

"We are working very hard to ensure that there is preservation of peace," police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said.

The crisis has tapped into simmering resentment over land, poverty and the dominance of the Kikuyu, Kibaki's tribe, in Kenyan politics and business since independence from Britain in 1963.
Source : PTI