Stung by unbridled clashes, Kenyan newspapers on Sunday pleaded with feuding leaders to start talks to end the crisis spurred by a disputed presidential election, telling them that "Kenya has bled enough."

At least 81 people have died in the western flashpoint town of Nakuru in the past three days as former UN chief Kofi Annan pushes President Mwai Kibaki and opposition chief Raila Odinga to end the crisis that has blighted the east African state.

Since the 27 December election at least 800 people have been killed and 260 000 displaced by the violence that started as political rioting but transformed into tribal and revenge killings, defying appeals for calm.

"For the umpteenth time we again ask President Kibaki and Orange Democratic Movement (party) leader Mr Raila Odinga to work for peace, truth and justice. They owe it to themselves, this generation and posterity," the Sunday Standard newspaper said in an editorial.

"But of immediate priority is acknowledgement by the government that it is losing grip and the only option is to negotiate for the sake of the country it inherited, in a much better shape," the Standard added.

Mass circulation Sunday Nation lamented a surge in sexual violence both inside and outside camps for internally displaced people, where culprits walk away unpunished.

"The cases of sexual abuse recorded by aid workers occur at various levels. On one, women and girls are raped during the actual violence. For instance, in the first two days of the violence, 56 cases of rape were recorded in Nairobi alone," the Nation added.

iThe Nation said "sexual violence is taking place inside the camps where circumstances of the moment have thrown strangers — men, women and children — into living communally in school halls and tents."

"At another level, the deprivation that informs the lives of the IDPs has bred a situation where desperately impoverished young girls are sexually exploited in order to get some food or clothing," the newspaper added.

"Given the foregoing, it is evident that even as efforts to resolve the political crisis that has precipitated the violence get underway, the country will soon have to grapple with this problem that is silently ravaging the lives of women and children in camps," it added.

The Nation said the sexual assault could exacerbate the spread of HIV/Aids, a stubborn killer that is gripping the country of 37 million people.

On Saturday, the former UN chief, on his sixth day in the country, slammed "systematic" rights abuses after a visit to the chaotic west of the country.

"We saw gross and systematic human rights abuses of fellow citizens," Annan said in Nairobi after returning from the Rift Valley which, along with the capital's slums, has seen some of the worst incidents of Kenya's post-election violence.

"Impunity cannot be allowed to stand," added Annan, accompanied by former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and Graca Machel, wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Annan on Thursday orchestrated a symbolic first meeting between Kibaki and Odinga, who shook hands, called for peace and hinted at a willingness to talk.

The gesture, hailed internationally, was later undermined by further squabbling, with both sides maintaining their hardline positions, thus failing to talk although the fighting in western Kenya that surges unbridled.

"Like the proverbial Kilkenny cats, they may fight until nothing is left but their tails. By then, there will be no country to govern — just smouldering ruins," the Standard warned.

The Standard, quoting US historian Howard Zinn, said: "There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."

"Kenya has bled enough," it concluded.

AFP

FEEDBACK | CONTACTS | PRESS RELEASES