Activists: Kenyan violence orchestrated

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

NAIROBI, Kenya - The price for burning down a home: 500 shillings, or about $8. Double that to have someone hacked to death.


The price list comes from a leading Kenyan human rights group that says some of the worst violence in the country's deadly disputed presidential election is the work of militias paid and directed by politicians.

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It "was portrayed as some primal irate rising up of (ethnic) communities against each other," commission chairwoman Muthoni Wanyeki told The Associated Press. "But our investigations indicate it seems to be very organized militia activity ... (the violence) very much seems to be directed and well organized."

She pointed to the torching of a church sheltering Kikuyu, dozens of whom burned to death.

"One group was watching the church, and then another took over," Wanyeki said. "We say it's organized because they are working in groups of 10 to 15 people and in shifts."

"Their training areas have been identified, some of the people from whom they get money have been identified," she said. "They are being paid 500 per burning and 1,000 per death."



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080112/ap_on_re_af/kenya_violence_for_sale