Former UN chief Kofi Annan says he has seen 'gross and systematic human rights abuses' in western Kenya after violence sparked by contested presidential elections last month.
Mr Annan made the comment in the Rift Valley on the fifth day of his visit to Kenya, which has been plagued by ethnic clashes since the disputed elections.
At leat 26 people were killed in the Rift Valley province today.
Mr Annan visited the western districts of Molo and Trans-Nzoia where tens of thousands of displaced people have taken refuge.
At least 15 people were killed overnight in the nearby provincial capital of Nakuru in a fresh eruption of violence. The new deaths bring the toll in Nakuru to 26 since ethnic disputes spread to the town on Thursday night.
Police said four others had died in Molo yesterday, pushing the overall post-election death toll close to 800.
The tribal warfare was lit by charges that President Mwai Kibaki stole the 27 December presidential polls from opposition chief Raila Odinga.
The worst clashes have taken place in the western Rift Valley and the capital's slums.
Police today fired bullets into the air and tear gas in Nakuru to disperse hundreds of machete-welding youths who had erected barriers along highways into the town.
Police said they had arrested some 150 people for breaking an overnight curfew there, including 50 suspects found with machetes and other crude weapons.
International mediators have so far failed to make headway in the crisis marked by an increase in rapes, arson attacks, the derailing of a train, and a police crackdown with live bullets, tear gas and batons on opposition marchers.
Earlier this week Mr Annan who orchestrated a symbolic first meeting between Mr Kibaki and Mr 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.
