Peace agreement fails to halt Kenya violence

Young men from rival ethnic groups hunted one another through the streets of a western Kenyan town Saturday, burning houses and blocking roads a day after the country’s political foes agreed to try to end weeks of violence over a disputed election.

Both men who signed the deal were still talking tough. President Mwai Kibaki accused his opponents of orchestrating the violence, and Raila Odinga, the opposition leader who says the presidency was stolen from him, said Kibaki’s “aggressive statements” were undermining efforts to quell the fighting.

With the two sides trading blame, the fighting continued unabated. Members of Kenya’s many tribes were going after people from rival groups.

A Pentecostal church in the western town of Eldoret was burned overnight, and only smoldering ruins were left by daybreak. The pastor’s nephew, Peter Ndungu, said the church was burned because his aunt is from Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe.

Terrified Kenyans continued to pour into camps for the displaced.

“It’s unpredictable,” said Joseph Njoroge, 28, a Kikuyu, as he strained to push a cart piled high with furniture along a road lined by burned-out homes and businesses.

Men armed with bows and arrows had come to his house, threatening to kill him in anger over the slaying of an opposition lawmaker Thursday. Police say the killing was tied to a love triangle, but opposition supporters say it was political.