Annan sees systematic abuse in poll violence

FORMER UN chief Kofi Annan said he had seen gross and systematic human rights abuses in western Kenya after violence sparked by contested presidential elections last month.

"We saw gross and systematic human rights abuses of fellow citizens," Mr Annan said in Nairobi after a visit to the conflict-torn western Rift Valley.

"Impunity can not be allowed to stand," he said

Mr Annan earlier visited the heart of Kenya's ethnic fighting along with former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and Graca Machel, wife of South African president Nelson Mandela, as 15 more people were reported killed overnight in nearby Nakuru.

The trio are part of the latest international effort to mediate the crisis sparked by the widely-contested election of President Mwai Kibaki on December 30, in which opposition leader Raila Odinga claims to have been robbed of victory.

Along with Kenyan officials, the trio toured camps of the displaced in Cherangani and Eldoret, scene of some of the worst post-poll violence, as well as Total, a shopping post in Molo district that was razed in fighting between supporters of Messrs Kibaki and Odinga.

Around 800 people have been killed and some 260,000 others displaced across the country, mainly in the west and the capital's slums, since the disputed poll touched off a wave of deadly rioting and ethnic killings.