WERE

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP):

Gunmen killed an opposition lawmaker in Nairobi and police and soldiers in helicopters fired on crowds in the Rift Valley yesterday, the latest flare-up of the ethnic fighting that has gripped Kenya since last month's disputed presidential election.

Groups of armed youths began gathering after the lawmaker's shooting in the capital's Mathare and Kibera slums. Sabat Abdullah, a slum resident, said a gang hefting machetes dragged a doctor from the president's Kikuyu tribe from his clinic ''and then cut and cut until his head was off.''

Since the December 27 election, the death toll across a country once among the most stable in Africa has soared to over 800. Much of the violence has pitted other tribes against Kikuyu, long resented for their dominance of Kenyan politics and business.

Police said the killing of opposition lawmaker Mugabe Were as he drove to his house in suburban Nairobi yesterday was being treated ''as a murder but we are not ruling out anything, including political motives.''

Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said: ''We are urging everyone to remain calm.''

Were was among a slew of opposition members who won seats in the legislative vote held at the same time as the presidential election.

The opposition, which won the most seats in parliament, accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the presidential vote.

"We suspect the foul hands of our adversaries,'' main opposition leader Raila Odinga said as he made his way yesterday to Were's home, where dozens of protesters manned burning barricades of tires and uprooted telephone posts. ''No Raila, no peace!'' they yelled.

Police fired tear gas at unarmed mourners who had been taunting them from the compound of Were's home.

Kibaki condemned the killing, appealed for calm and promised police would act swiftly to ensure the perpetrators were dealt with severely.

A resident of Nairobi's Kibera slum, Teddy Njoroge, said that in the wake of Were's death, houses were being set ablaze near a railway that generally divides members of Kikuyu from Odinga's Luo people. Flames and smoke rose from one area of Kibera.