Report looks at Kenya riots

Pro-government and opposition political leaders helped finance and organize violence that claimed more than 1,000 lives after the country’s disputed presidential election, Human Rights Watch said Monday, calling for prosecution of those involved.

In a report, the New York-based rights watchdog also accused police of shooting hundreds of people protesting the election result in Nairobi, Kisumu and other towns between late December and early January.

In many cases, the rights group said, witnesses reported that the police had not been provoked.

Kenyan and other international rights groups and researchers have made similar allegations about the involvement of politicians and businesspeople in the violence, as well as excesses by the police. Kenyan politicians and police have repeatedly rejected such charges.

The Human Rights Watch report was based on 200 interviews with victims, witnesses, diplomats, police and lawmakers, among others.

“Human Rights Watch believes that there is no alternative to criminal prosecutions of those who have contributed to the violence, including for members of the police found to have used excessive force,” the report says.