A New Burst of Killings in Kenya… ODM MP Assassinated

29 Jan. 2008 CNN

Luo tribe members armed with machetes and rocks enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them in Kisumu.

Even as Kenya's President and main opposition leader launched negotiations aimed breaking their violent political impasse, the crisis reached a troubling new low with news that a recently elected member of parliament had been gunned down outside his home.

Mugabe Were, a MP from the ODM party was slain as he drove up to his home in Nairobi. Odinga told reporters "We have witnessed five bullets that were shot into his body, two of them into his eyes. These were people who had planned an assassination." The Kenyan police said they had arrested three people in Were's killing.

Annan predicted that Kenya would only need a month to resolve the immediate political crisis and a year to solve the larger issues that have lingered . Yet while Odinga and Kibaki have both said they want to negotiate, neither has shown any real commitment to resolving the crisis. Kibaki insists his election as President is non-negotiable, while Odinga says he will accept nothing but a new vote.