{"id":24478,"date":"2012-08-22T23:21:12","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T20:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=24478"},"modified":"2012-08-22T23:21:12","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T20:21:12","slug":"ethnic-massacre-in-kenya-dozens-burned-to-death-africa-news-24478","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/ethnic-massacre-in-kenya-dozens-burned-to-death-africa-news-24478\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic massacre in Kenya dozens burned to Death \/ Africa News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

At least 48 people have been burned and hacked to death in ethnic clashes over cattle grazing rights in Kenya.<\/h1>\n

Gangs armed with machetes, bows, and spears locked villagers in their huts, set them alight and then butchered anyone who tried to escape.<\/p>\n

Police said most of the dead were women and children.<\/p>\n

They described it as the worst single attack since violence rocked the country after a contested election four years ago.<\/p>\n

The raid was part of a long-running dispute between rival Pokomo and Orma groups in the village of Reketa, in Tarassa, in the southeast of the country.<\/p>\n

Regional deputy police chief Joseph Kitur said 31 women, 11 children and six men were killed. Most had been hacked to death.<\/p>\n

However, a Kenyan Red Cross official, who asked not to be named, said 59 people had been killed.<\/p>\n

He said they had taken 40 people to hospital in Malindi town, 90 miles from the bloodshed.<\/p>\n

“Many of the injured are women and children with severe burns. Eleven have deep cuts on their heads and other body parts,” the official added.<\/p>\n

“I have counted seven with bullet wounds. We have tried to stabilise them, but honestly it will be a miracle if all of them arrive at hospital alive.”<\/p>\n

Local government official Danson Mungatana said it was a “revenge attack” by Pokomo farmers on Orma cattle herders.<\/p>\n

“There have been problems simmering for a while,” he said. “About 10 days ago three Pokomo were killed by the Orma community.”<\/p>\n

In a separate incident in northeast Kenya, five people died after cattle rustlers attacked a village in Mandera near the border with Somalia and Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Kenya spiralled into violence after contested elections that left some 1,200 people dead and 600,000 homeless.<\/p>\n

Kenya Massacre:Revenge attack\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

Mr Kitur said that, according to investigations, the attack had been carried out by the Pokomo on the Orma.<\/p>\n

Danson Mungatana, the lawmaker for the area, said the killings were the latest in a string of attacks and cattle raids and had been taken in retaliation for a previous incident.<\/p>\n

“There have been problems simmering for a while,” he told.<\/p>\n

Nairobi, says violence between the two communities is often reported, but not on such a huge scale.<\/p>\n

Our reporter says there is long-standing enmity between the communities, who get caught up in a cycle of revenge killings over the theft of cattle and grazing and water rights.<\/p>\n

In 2001, a series of clashes between the Orma and Pokomo left at least 130 dead in the same region.<\/p>\n

The semi-arid region is one of the poorest in Kenya, with very little infrastructure or industry.<\/p>\n

The government recently created a ministry to promote development in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid areas, but there has been little improvement in peoples’ lives, our reporter adds.<\/p>\n

The violence comes as Kenya prepares for elections early next year. More than a 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 displaced in the months following the last election in 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 48 people have been burned and hacked to death in ethnic clashes over cattle grazing rights in Kenya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,80,63,1,118,14],"tags":[77153,26484,32213,32209,32208,32212,32215,32211,32202,32210,32203,32206,32199,32207,32205,32214,32204,32200,32201],"class_list":["post-24478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-africa","tag-africa-kenya","tag-dozens-death-kenya","tag-kenya-48-people-burned","tag-kenya-burned-hacked","tag-kenya-dozens-burned","tag-kenya-election-violence","tag-kenya-ethnic","tag-kenya-ethnic-clashes","tag-kenya-grazing-rights","tag-kenya-massacre","tag-kenya-massacre-2012","tag-kenya-nairobi","tag-kenya-people-killed-machete","tag-kenya-violence","tag-kenya-women-children-death","tag-machetes-armed-gang-kenya","tag-nairobi","tag-village-of-reketa-massacre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}