Kenya clashes: 'Revenge attacks' in Coast Province

Twelve people have been killed in renewed ethnic clashes in a remote part of south-eastern Kenya, officials say.

Armed raiders set fire to houses overnight, a local official said.

"We heard gunshots and screams, then there was smoke all over," said Jillo Dabacha, according to Reuters news agency.

The raid happened in the Tana River area of Coast Province, where clashes between the Orma and Pokomo communities killed at least 52 people last month.

"These are revenge attacks," Kenya Red Cross official Nelly Muluka told the AFP news agency.

Mohammed Morowa, a Pokomo, told the AP news agency that 11 of those killed were his relatives.

Local resident Timson Maneno told the BBC that the attackers were wearing army uniforms.

He said the dead were five men, six women and a child.

The two groups have a long history of tension over access to land and water.

The Pokomo are mostly farmers, while the Orma are semi-nomadic cattle-herders.
Some analysts say there may be a link between the violence and national elections which are due in March 2013.
- (Courtney Morgan)