BBC is reporting that at least 30 people have been burned to death in a church in western Kenya, after seeking refuge from the mounting violence over last week's elections. A mob attacked and set fire to the church in the town of Eldoret where hundreds of people were hiding, say police and eyewitness reports. Dozens more are reported to have been taken to hospital with severe burns. Also, a curfew was imposed in Kisumu, the country’s third-largest city.
Many people are furious since President Mwai Kibaki was declared a winner in a fiercely fought election despite widespread evidence of ballot rigging. EU election monitors said the presidential poll "fell short of international standards". In an interim report, chief EU monitor Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said the tallying process "lacked credibility".
The violence opened a rift between Kikuyus, President Kibaki’s tribe, and the Luos, the tribe of Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, who narrowly lost the election. According to NY Times
The election has uncorked dangerous resentment toward the Kikuyus, the privileged ethnic group of Kenya, who have dominated business and politics since independence in 1963.
The Kenyan government has imposed a media blackout since the violence started. One Kenyan blogger Kenyan Pundit reports that:
This is now officially a police state.
Meanwhile the State Department must be on vacation:
The American State Department, having first congratulated Mr Kibaki on his victory, hastily withdrew this accolade and said: "We do have serious concerns, as I know others do, about irregularities in the vote count."