ELDORET, Kenya - A policeman shot and killed an opposition lawmaker Thursday in what authorities say was a crime of passion over a woman. But machete-wielding protesters convinced it was an assassination clashed with police, leaving at least three dead.
The fighting interrupted talks aimed at calming a nation gripped by violence since a disputed election a month ago.
At least one person died and 21 people were injured in this western city after the lawmaker's death. In Eldoret's main hospital, bloody trails led to overcrowded wards where bandaged victims shared dirty mattresses on the floor because there weren't enough beds.
Police said David Too was shot by a police officer who discovered the lawmaker was having an affair with his girlfriend. The woman -- whom Too family members deny was linked to the politician -- was shot in the same attack also died, a hospital official said.
Too was the second anti-government legislator killed in a week; opposition politicians said both were victims of assassination plots. A Too family spokesman accused the police of a cover-up, saying the lawmaker was not involved with the woman and had feared for his safety.
"Too had expressed fears that his life was in danger, especially during the campaign period as he crisscrossed the constituency to seek votes," said spokesman Julius Langat.
Kenya has been embroiled in ethnic violence since President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the Dec. 27 election and opposition candidate Raila Odinga, head of Too's party, rejected the result, saying the vote had been rigged.
Much of the bloodshed has pitted other tribes, including Odinga's Luo, against Kibaki's Kikuyu people. Kikuyus, Kenya's largest ethnic group, have long been resented for their dominance of the economy and politics. Western Kenya's Rift Valley has seen some of the worst violence.
Odinga has said he wants a new election, while Kibaki has made clear he will not negotiate his position as president. In Nairobi, negotiators from the two camps began the first day of talks mediated by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. But the talks were delayed after a morning session, with Annan saying leaders needed to calm their followers following Too's death.
"We will postpone our session this afternoon and work all day tomorrow so they can attend to urgent matters, call constituencies and talk to other people," Annan said.
At a summit in Ethiopia, the head of the African Union warned leaders of the continent they could not stand by while Kenya descended into ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called on the UN Security Council to act, saying France feared Kenya would "sink into a murderous conflict of an ethnic character."
Too's death came two days after another opposition lawmaker, Mugabe Were, was fatally shot as he drove to his house in suburban Nairobi, setting off more violence in the capital's slums and in western regions.
Opposition party secretary-general Anyang Nyongo said there was "an evil scheme" to kill legislators and rob the opposition of its majority in parliament. Legislative elections held the same day as the presidential vote gave the opposition 99 parliament seats to 43 for Kibaki's party.
Were and Too would have been freshmen lawmakers. While neither was seen as particularly influential, they had local followings that defeated incumbents in hard-fought races.
Police said Too's death was not linked to the political turmoil. Eldoret Deputy Police Chief Gabriel Kuya said the traffic officer had discovered that his girlfriend was having an affair with Too, and chased the pair on his motorcycle when he saw them together in a car.
"He drove toward the side of the woman and shot her in the stomach twice. Her partner (legislator Too) pleaded with the officer not to kill her but he turned his pistol on him instead, hitting him four times in the head," Kuya told the AP.
Langat, the Too family spokesman, said the woman was a police officer and that Too had gone to her to seek protection for his family.
"I know the woman who was with Too very well," Langat said, speaking from Too's home village of Chepkoiyo. "In fact she is my relative and there was no way that she was involved with the legislator in a love triangle."
In Eldoret, protesters used large rocks to block the road outside the hospital and torched a lumber yard belonging to a Kikuyu businessman.
The violence also spread to areas near Too's home village and the western city of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold, where the sky turned black with smoke from burning tires. A truck was set on fire outside the police station, and a mob lobbed stones at the station.
"Kibaki must go! They are finishing off our leaders!" the protesters yelled.
Police and protesters lobbing stones at them engaged in running battles, then police fired into the crowd as a reporter watched. He saw a middle-aged man, shot in the stomach, lying in the street.
A protester, Jane Akelo, said she saw an officer shoot a teenager in the head and the youth died on the spot. She said she saw another body lying on the road.
Outside the main police station in Eldoret, about 40 people lay in the gravel trying to sleep after they fled the violence in the nearby town of Nakuru.
Helen Kidogo cuddled her 11-month-old son as her 6-year-old daughter sat in the shadow of the police station. The family had fled their home without anything.
"I'm scared for my children," Kidogo said. "People are burning houses, killing people and burning them."
Orwe Collins, a 23-year-old mechanic, looked over the smoldering ruins of the lumber yard. "Life is not back to normal. We are ready to die for change," Collins said. "The situation can go from calm to bad in a minute, like when this MP was shot today. It was peaceful this morning."
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, said Wednesday that she saw the violence as ethnic cleansing. But the State Department backed away from her statement, saying the U.S. had not yet concluded whether atrocities had been committed.
Hundreds of Kikuyus have been killed, and members of the group account for more than half of the 300,000 chased from their homes, most in the Rift Valley.
Human rights groups and others accuse politicians of orchestrating some of the violence.
The State Department said Thursday it had authorized its non-emergency personnel and family members to relocate from Kisumu to Nairobi.
