ELDORET, Kenya—A police officer in Kenya shot dead an opposition legislator on Thursday, the second killed in a week, triggering fatal protests and interrupting talks to try to end more than a month of violence.
Warning of catastrophe, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he would travel to Nairobi on Friday from an African Union summit in neighbouring Ethiopia to help his predecessor Kofi Annan, who has been trying to mediate an end to the crisis.
Political and ethnic violence has killed 850 people in Kenya since the disputed Dec. 27 re-election of President Mwai Kibaki. At least two more people were killed in clashes on Thursday.
The instability has shocked neighbouring states and Western donors, and transformed Kenya from one of Africa's more peaceful and prosperous nations into its most urgent crisis.
"Violence continues, threatening to escalate to catastrophic levels," Ban told the 53-nation African Union summit.
African leaders also voiced alarm. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said the continent's image was at stake.
The unrest has taken the lid off decades-old divisions between communities over land, wealth and power, dating from British colonial rule and stoked by Kenyan politicians during 44 years of independence.
Fresh protests erupted on Thursday after David Kimutai Too, an opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) member of parliament, was killed in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret.
Police commissioner Hussein Ali said Too's murder was a "crime of passion". The traffic police officer responsible, who had been arrested, had shot a fellow officer believed to be his girlfriend along with the legislator, he said.
ODM leader Raila Odinga said it was a political act, without giving evidence. "I condemn this second execution of an ODM member of parliament. The purpose of this killing is to reduce the ODM majority," he said.
Talks Postponed, Protests Erupt
Kenya's feuding political parties postponed their second day of talks brokered by Annan after the killing. Negotiations were due to resume on Friday.
Shops shut down in Eldoret and some residents began to leave as protesters in the suburbs took to the streets. Witnesses said soldiers fired into the air, killing at least one person.
"When we heard about the death of the MP everybody came out. In a flash, a Kenyan army Land Rover appeared and they started shooting," resident Willy Kiboi said. "One Sudanese man is dead and three people are injured."
A crowd gathered outside the police station demanding the traffic officer responsible for Too's killing be handed over.
"Let him be brought out so we can do our own justice," one protester shouted. "This is a government plot to wipe out ODM."
On roads around Eldoret, youths with bows and arrows stopped vehicles. Plumes of dark smoke rose from burning homes.
Youths also burned tyres and blocked roads with stones in the pro-opposition western town of Kisumu. An aid worker said one protestor was shot dead by police and six others wounded.
"They're saying Raila should withdraw from the talks and assemble his army because the government has declared war on ODM," said Kisumu resident David Onyango. "I can hear gunshots and the youths are not even running away."
Earlier this week, another opposition legislator, Melitus Were, was gunned down outside his Nairobi home, triggering rioting and ethnic killings. ODM said it was a "political assassination". Police said they were treating it as "murder".
Many Kenyans fear what will happen if Annan's mediation fails to strike a deal between Kibaki and Odinga, who says he was robbed by fraud during the vote count.
Jendayi Frazer, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, said violence had degenerated into ethnic cleansing in parts of the Rift Valley and that she wanted to see power-sharing.
Annan launched formal mediation between the government and ODM on Tuesday, each side represented by a team of three—both a mix of moderates and hardliners.
Kibaki, 76, says he is the legally elected president, but is open to sharing power. Odinga, 63, wants Kibaki to stand down or allow a new election after a period of power-sharing.
Members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe were the first to be attacked after the polls, and are now seeking revenge on Luos, Luhyas and Kalenjins who largely back Odinga.
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