At least half a dozen people were killed in violent clashes in a Nairobi slum today, medical sources and witnesses said.
Residents of the Kibera district said they knew of at least seven people who had died in the violence.
Six corpses were brought to the city mortuary, according to chief government pathologist Mr Kirasi Olumbe. "They appeared to have been hacked to death," he said.
A television news report put the number of dead at 11.
The unrest continued into the afternoon, according to reports from the scene, which said police deployed at the edges of Kibera fired into the air.
It was not immediately clear if the violence was related to recent tension between landlords and tenants in Kibera, which is home to between 250,000 and 500,000 people.
Some residents said the fighting pitted two ethnic groups - the Luos and the Nubians - against each other.
The Nubians, named after Sudan's Nuba Mountains from where they originate, are a minority. They are mainly Muslim and many are landlords.
Some residents said Muslim youths had been summoned to a Kibera Mosque last night because of a rumoured plan to attack it.
AFP