Renewed Ethnic Clashes Hit Kenya

19 Jan 2008 CNN 

Louis Michel EU Development Commissioner

Diplomatic efforts to solve the violent fallout from Kenya's disputed elections continued over the weekend with a visit from the European Union's development commissioner Louis Michel, who met with President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga. Michel's visit was not an attempt to broker a deal between the two sides, but to "collect first-hand information" about the situation on the ground and to stress to both sides the need to cooperate with the African Union delegation. Michel's trip came ahead of the arrival of an African Union delegation led by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan expected Tuesday.

Kenyan media reported that roving youths armed with spears, bows and arrows and machetes were destroying homes around the town of Eldoret. Eldoret's district commissioner Abdi Halake, who said that six people were killed and 50 houses were burned to the ground in the weekend violence. The Rift Valley town of Eldoret has been the scene of much of the post-election violence.