Kenya opposition stronghold devastated by unrest

By Guled Mohamed

KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) - Niva Ndubi cries as she recalls the moment a stray bullet tore through her shack made of iron sheets, killing her mother.

"I was in the neighbour's house when mummy was shot," the nine-year old told Reuters, sobbing.

"I could not face seeing her die. I last saw her in the morning after breakfast. I went to play and left her arranging our clothes. I miss her so much," she said.

Judith Naliaka died as youths clashed with police in Kenya's western city of Kisumu, the latest in weeks of bloody unrest which has seen homes and shops burned to the ground.

Her family blames the police.

"We accuse the government for Judy's death," Rose Chakra, one of her cousins, told Reuters. "The police just shot her as she sat in her house."

Her shack stands silent, a hole in its back wall where the bullet entered, clothes and cooking utensils strewn on the floor between two wooden beds exactly as they were when Naliaka was rushed to hospital.

She brought up her daughter alone, and the young girl is now living with neighbours in shacks which lie metres from the railway line running from Kenya to Uganda.