Coffins and teargas at Kenya opposition funeral

By Andrew Cawthorne

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Mourners who attended a mass funeral on Wednesday for victims of Kenya's post-election violence found themselves running from teargas as it ended, in yet another dark moment for the east African nation.

Emotions ran high from early morning as coffins were carried and driven from a Nairobi mortuary to the nearby "Ligi Ndogo" (Little League) children's football fields.

The cheap wooden caskets were laid out on tables, some with tops open to show the bodies of mainly young people dressed, in death, in their Sunday best.

Relatives and organisers from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) said the 28 victims being honoured were all residents of Nairobi's Kibera slum, all shot by police during recent protests against Kibaki's re-election.

"Jacob was the bread-winner for his entire family. How will they survive without him?" said grief-stricken Francis Adhiambo, 41, uncle of electrician Jacob Omondi, 24.

Standing in a solemn family circle next to the coffin, Adhiambo said his nephew had stayed inside his shack during street battles in Kibera on Friday and was lying on his bed when police burst in and shot him in the chest.

"They let me carry him out and I took him to hospital. But in my car I saw him take his final breath," he said. "He was a polite boy, he has never thrown a stone in his life. The police came looking for revenge, they came to kill."

Other families told similar stories, some saying youths were shot in the back from hundreds of metres, others telling of children as young as four struck down by gunfire.