Kenya Unravels Amidst Killings, Protests, Boycotts and Unrest

The protests are over in Kenya. But there is no end in sight to the violence. Now that the 3 days of national protest are complete, the opposition party is calling for boycotts to begin. 22 people are confirmed dead in the last 3 days alone, raising the confirmed death total to over 600.

On Friday the level of violence reached a new level of intensity as both sides used machetes, swords, even bows and arrows during the fighting. There was open fighting in the streets of Mombasa, as police and demonstrators fought in hand to hand combat in the streets.

CNN reported, “A blood-smeared pickup truck carried the bodies of a 15-year-old girl and a young man killed in Kibera, along with wailing relatives. ‘They killed my daughter. Kibaki must die,’ a woman screamed in anguish. She said her daughter was washing utensils on her doorstep when police opened fire and she was hit.

The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch said in a weekend statement that police were behind dozens of killings and that they opened fire on both looters and opposition protesters under an unofficial “shoot-to-kill” policy. Human Rights Watch said victims included people hit by police gunfire on the fringes of protests.

The police statement released Friday said police were dealing with “deception and manipulation of jobless people by their leaders. Some have been coached into committing crimes without the benefit of the bigger picture.” It said the unnamed leaders were “exploiting ethnicity, religion and subjective politics.”