‘Clear ethnic cleansing’ in Kenya
US envoy says gangs are trying to force the Kikuyu people out of the Rift Valley.
Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Nairobi, said that police officials had told her that was no explicit shoot-to-kill order, but the law allowed police officers to shoot on sight any people threatening life or property.
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Frazer said that the US wanted an investigation into the violence, including the killing of civilians by police, and said guilty parties must be held accountable.
“There has been an organised effort to push out people from Rift Valley … It is clearly ethnic cleansing. I don’t consider it genocide,” she said.
“The cycle of retaliation has gone too far and has become more dangerous.”
Deng specified that he was not saying that anything that had happened so far in Kenya amounted to genocide.
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“We’re not talking the G-word at this point, but the kind of atrocities we’re seeing could easily escalate to dangerous levels,” he said.
Similar orders were given in January when police officers came under attack from gangs.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International (AI), the London-based rights group, has called for the protection of several Kenyan human rights defenders and activists who have received serious death threats.
“Police will henceforth be very forceful on groups of persons carrying out activities that threaten the lives and property of others,” Eric Kraithe, Kenya’s police spokesman, said.
About 8,000 displaced people remained in a police compound in the town where they have been sheltering since violence erupted there several days ago.