WORLD : Kenya Official’s Funeral Melee
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NAIROBI, Kenya — The funeral of the slain foreign minister ended in violence today as riot police used nightsticks and tear gas to beat back a huge crowd of wailing, stone-throwing mourners.
Scores of people were injured by rocks and sticks, and reporters said they saw police club and arrest dozens of others before the spontaneous demonstration of grief and rage was brought under control.
Cabinet ministers, leading politicians and foreign envoys were caught up in the melee, which erupted moments after President Daniel Arap Moi left the grounds of the Valley Road Pentecostal Church in his official limousine.
Thousands of people had gathered outside the church for the service for Robert Ouko, whose charred body was found with a bullet hole through the skull near his farm in western Kenya on Feb. 16.
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