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Poisoned Arrows Riddle Kenya

Peace has come, but edgy populace stocks deadly new weapon

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 1, 2008 7:58 PM CST

(Newser) – Kenya has struck a peace agreement, but its people are still stockpiling a new weapon of choice: poisoned arrows. A primitive arms industry is supplying ethnic warriors with the projectiles to replace their time-tested machetes, Time reports. “This is obviously something very wrong and very new,” said one former police commander.

Entire villages will work together to make the weapons, attaching bamboo polls to sharpened nail heads dipped in poison. The peace agreement hasn’t halted production, because tribes fear more violence is coming. “We cannot know the time of day when they will come,” said one arrow maker. “If they catch you off guard, you’re dead.”

A young Kenyan fighter from the Kalenjin tribe holds a bow and arrows in the village of Upper Manga, Kenya, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A young Kenyan fighter from the Kalenjin tribe holds a bow and arrows in the village of Upper Manga, Kenya, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)   (Associated Press)
A Kenyan fighter from the Kalenjin tribe holds a bow and arrows in the village of Upper Manga, Kenya, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
A Kenyan fighter from the Kalenjin tribe holds a bow and arrows in the village of Upper Manga, Kenya, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)   (Associated Press)
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