Mobs Battle Kenya Police in Rural Areas; 18 Dead

Stone-throwing mobs battled Kenyan riot police in rural areas Tuesday, and President Daniel Arap Moi blamed the anti-government riots on “hooligans and drug addicts.” Eighteen people have been killed in four days of violence.

Nairobi, the scene of widespread violence over the weekend, appeared calm.

In Washington, the State Department said Tuesday that it is advising American citizens to defer all non-essential travel to Kenya because of anti-government protests.

The wave of violence followed last week’s detentions of Kenya’s most prominent supporters of political pluralism. Five of them have been officially detained under public security statutes that allow them to be held without charge indefinitely.

Kenya, a one-party state, has long been considered one of Africa’s most stable and successful nations. Since early this year, however, Moi has come under increasing pressure to allow a multi-party system.

Clashes between stone-throwing mobs and armed security forces were reported Tuesday in and around the towns of Kiambu, Nyeri and Githunguri, all north of Nairobi, where riot troops fired on suspected demonstrators.

Violence also was reported in Kangemi and Kawangware, two sprawling, low-income neighborhoods on Nairobi’s western edge.

Some of the residents, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were beaten by police, who then robbed them of money and valuables. The situation in both neighborhoods appeared to have calmed by evening.

A spokesman for Moi’s office said 15 people had been killed and 61 wounded in the disturbances, which began Saturday when police used tear gas and guns to halt a pro-democracy rally.

At least three of 10 deaths confirmed independently were not included in the government breakdown. The government did not name those killed, and it was not immediately clear if the other seven deaths confirmed independently were in the official figure.

Moi, in comments to Kenyan troops back from U.N. peacekeeping duty in Namibia, blamed the riots on “hooligans and drug addicts” and said his government would continue hunting down instigators of the violence.

The comments, his first public mention of the violence, followed a government order Monday empowering police to use whatever force necessary to quell the disturbances.

Moi has vehemently rejected the idea of political pluralism. He says that because there are about 40 tribes in Kenya, a multi-party system would result in tribal-based parties leading to ethnic divisions and even tribal warfare.