Two Men Speared to Death in Kenyan Ethnic Attack over Land
Date: 30-Jan-06
Country: KENYA
About 30 suspected Maasai tribal warriors attacked squatters from the Kikuyu tribe who were evicted by the authorities from the valley's Eburru forest three days ago and had set up a makeshift camp just outside, police said.
Hundreds of people were killed in the 1990s in the Rift Valley after politicians seeking electoral advantage exploited tensions over access to land and water rights in some of the worst violence in the country's post-independence history.
"The two died from wounds inflicted from spears on various parts of their bodies and we have taken their bodies to the area mortuary," Simon Kiragu, a regional police official, said.
"We believe that the attackers are Maasai herders who are currently in the forest with their animals," he told Reuters. "We have sent police to the area but no arrests have been made so far."
Three men and a woman were wounded in the attack about 140 km (87 miles) northwest of the capital Nairobi.
One of the squatters, Charles Mbuthia, said youths armed "with all kinds of crude weapons" had carried it out. He added: "We have called the police, yet no action has been taken."
The incident took place after police on Thursday burned down the homes of some 4,000 people in an effort to stop them squatting in the Eburru forest, according to residents.
Police set more than 300 houses on fire in an attempt to keep them from returning. But most of the squatters set up camp nearby and police said they must leave from there as well.
Settlers and squatters, like those in Eburru who cut down trees to make way for their farms and making charcoal, have been blamed for Kenya's increasing deforestation and the environmental damage that it causes.
