Death toll in Kenya's slum eviction row rises to 13

The death toll from clashes over an attempted eviction from a Kenyan slum has risen from nine to 13, hospital officials said this evening.

"The reported number of deaths was nine but when we counted the bodies at the morgue, they were 13," an official who asked not to be named told AFP by telephone.

There was a pitched battle in the sprawling Mathare slum on the edge of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday after a landlord hired over 400 youths to evict tenants from an apartment in a Mathare North apartment.

Ten other people are still in hospital with serious injuries.

Police Commissioner Edwin Nyaseda said 42 people, who were armed with crude weapons, including machetes, clubs and slings, were arrested and would appear in court soon.

AFP