KENYA: Asian families seek refuge in Kisumu temple after day of rioting and looting in the lakeside city

Record ID: 361995

  • Title: KENYA: Asian families seek refuge in Kisumu temple after day of rioting and looting in the lakeside city
  • Date: 31st December 2007
  • Summary: FATHER HOLDING A CRYING CHILD AS FAMILY SITS DOWN
  • Embargoed: 15th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA12HTVY6T5OU3FVB22QNY41HAI
  • Story Text: A group of Asian residents of Kisumu have sought refuge in a temple as some of the worst violence flares in the opposition's western heartland, where gangs of youths stripped shops of goods and set buildings on fire.
    Some Kenyan Indians, who own many of the city's businesses, fled to a Hindu temple after their homes were broken into and jewellery and mobile phones snatched.

    "Yesterday it was all chaos," Jayash Patel, an Indian resident of Kisumu, said. "We feel that 500 people together, at least we can save ourselves if we are also like a mob, though we don't have weapons here because we didn't come to fight. Or we don't have arms to actually save ourselves by having weapons, but we are just thinking we are in a temple of God and we feel if we are all together it is easier for us to save ourselves because we are all going to be united," he added.
    Sunday was calmer, but some of the Asian families said they felt safe being in the temple.

    "Everything is up to God because we are thanking God for having a temple like this, putting all of us together here, making all of us feel that we are there for each other," said 13-year old Bhumika Raj.
    Witnesses said four people died in west Kenya, and smoke rose from a Nairobi slum where protesters burned property and looted.
    Analysts had expected Kenya's flourishing economy -- the region's largest -- would shrug off politicking around the vote with little policy difference between the main candidates.
    Economists credit Kibaki's government with allowing private enterprise the freedom to flourish. But they say growth could have been even better if the government had tackled corruption, speeded infrastructure improvements and fought crime which foreign investors often cite as a deterrent.
    Kenya has been on the path to economic recovery under Kibaki, an economist and former finance minister. Expansion stood at only 0.6 percent in 2002 when he came to power but has been growing by an annual average of 5 percent.
    Odinga has worked hard to shake off fears he is a left-wing radical, and most analysts believe he will not change any fundamental economic policies if he takes the presidency.
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