* Clashes over water, grazing land part of long dispute
* More than 100 villagers killed in three weeks
* Politicians accused of stirring up trouble
* President imposes dusk-to-dawn curfew (Adds curfew imposed in affected
area)
By Joseph Akwiri
MOMBASA, Kenya, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Hundreds of armed raiders killed at
least 38 villagers and torched more than 150 houses on Monday in the latest
fighting between rival tribes in a dispute over land and water in Kenya's
coastal region.
In an attempt to stem the bloodshed, President Mwai Kibaki introduced a
dusk-to-dawn curfew in Tana River County where the attacks occurred and
ordered the deployment of additional security personnel to the area.
"The Government has ... directed the declaration and maintenance of a
dusk-to-dawn curfew among other measures ... In the meantime, additional
detachments of security forces have been sent to the area with immediate
effect," Kibaki's office said in a statement.
"The killings of innocent women, children, men and security officials is a
heinous crime and the perpetrators must be punished accordingly for their
outright disregard for the sanctity of human life and property."
It was unclear how long the curfew would remain in place.
More than 100 people have been shot, hacked and burnt to death in the last
three weeks as the Pokomo and Orma tribes have fought one another in a
deadly dispute over Orma-owned cattle grazing on land the Pokomo say is
theirs.
Security forces were trying to disarm both tribes on Monday evening and
Samuel Kilele, the provincial commissioner in Coast province, said police
had arrested 15 people over attacks last week.
Earlier in the day, Kilele called for the military to be sent to the Tana
Delta area as the police struggled to end the killing.
The land clashes and deadly riots in the port city of Mombasa following the
killing of a radical Muslim preacher last month have stoked fears of more
unrest along the coast ahead of a presidential election next March.
"We will soon recommend to the government to send military officers down
there to help us restore order," Kilele said.
Jillo Dabacha, who chairs a community security group in the trouble zone,
said about 300 attackers armed with spears, bows and arrows and guns had
surrounded the Orma village and attacked a nearby police camp in a
coordinated strike.
"They wanted to prevent the police from interfering with their attack on the
village," Dabacha told Reuters by telephone.
Settled Pokomo farmers and semi-nomadic Orma pastoralists have clashed
intermittently for years over access to grazing, farmland and water. The
violence broke out again last month after the Pokomo accused the
pastoralists of grazing cattle on their land and massacred more than 50 Orma
villagers.
AWASH WITH GUNS
The Kenyan Red Cross said the death toll from Monday morning's attack on
Kilelengwani village was 38 people, including nine police officers, and that
it was considering pulling its local staff out of the Tana Delta.
Kenya's Indian Ocean coast is a major tourist destination but many Kenyans
accuse the government of a decades-long economic and political
marginalisation of the region, creating deep social divisions.
Zipporah Wamboi, a secondary school teacher in the Tana Delta, said there
were often food shortages and very limited access to clean water.
"People drink from the swamps and the crocodile-infested Tana River. The
plight of these people has been ignored for years now and something must be
done quickly," Wamboi said.
Wamboi also said many in the area were armed.
"Many of us believe that there is a political instigation to this violence.
This violence always take a high crescendo when the political temperatures
start to take root," Hassan Omar, a lawyer and former commissioner at the
Kenya National Commission for Human Rights, told Reuters.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga visited the area after an earlier attack but
government efforts have failed to ease tensions.
Cattle rustling and clashes over grazing and farming land are relatively
common between communities in arid areas of east Africa and often escalate
into revenge attacks.
An influx of weapons across Kenya's borders, in particular from war-ravaged
Somalia, has made the situation more violent. (Additional reporting by
George Obulutsa in Nairobi; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Andrew
Osborn)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Mon Sep 10 2012 - 19:12:57 EDT
