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Kenya constitution violence rages

Monday, October 31, 2005 at 07:40 JST
KISUMU, Kenya — Heavily-armed security forces battled hundreds of rioting youths in western Kenya as the death toll from weekend clashes over the country's proposed constitution climbed to four.

Fighting between police and youth gangs in the slums of Kisumu continued into the early hours of Sunday, a day after the violence erupted when opponents of the draft charter tried to disrupt a rally by supporters, officials said Sunday.


There was no immediate word of casualties from the overnight unrest but three people, including two schoolboys, were shot and killed and dozens injured on Saturday and hospital officials said a fourth person died of his wounds on Sunday.

"An unidentified youth died at our hospital as we tried to remove a bullet lodged in his chest," said Juliana Otieno, the medical superintendant at the city's Nyanza Provincial Hospital.

After news of the first deaths hit the streets of Kisumu late Saturday, gangs of angry youths stormed the hospital demanding quicker treatment of the injured and prompting medical workers to summon riot police for protection.

Witnesses said scores of people were arrested although police officials were still unable to provide the number of those detained.

Kisumu, about 350 kilometers northwest of Nairobi on the shores of Lake Victoria, is a stronghold of the campaign to reject the draft constitution in a Nov 21 referendum.

The controversy has split President Mwai Kibaki's government. Kisumu is the home of powerful Roads Minister Raila Odinga who vehemently opposes the new charter because it retains nearly absolute presidential powers. He had earlier warned supporters of the referendum against staging a rally in Kisumu.

Touring the hospital on Sunday, Odinga accused police of using excessive force in attempting to stop his supporters from protesting against a pro-constitution rally led by Information Minister Rafael Tuju.

"It is very unfortunate that police blatantly resorted to the use of excessive force to maim innocent people who were going about their business," he told reporters.

"We in the Orange Movement are never for violence and we have not at any time advocated violence," he said. The orange is the symbol for "no" in the referendum.

Scores of people have been injured in the increasingly violent campaign for the vote on the first major changes to Kenya's constitution since independence from Britain in 1963.

The debate has raised fears of wider unrest and charges of coup plots in a country long considered an island of relative stability in volatile east Africa.

Opponents like Odinga complain the draft retains the nearly absolute powers invested in the president's office despite popular demands for significant authority to be devolved to a prime minister.

But Kibaki insists it fulfills the aspirations of the Kenyan people and has urged the public to endorse it, spurning calls by church leaders and neutral lawmakers to postpone the referendum for the sake of stability. (Wire reports)

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