Six die in Kenya Christmas attack

Cattle is a major commodity in the region

Kenyan police say armed men shot and killed at least six people at a Christmas party in the west of the country near the Ugandan border.

Two of the dead in the weekend attack were said to be police officers.

There are no details of a motive for the attack, and Trans Nzoia region police have launched an investigation. In recent months western areas of Kenya, near the border with Uganda, have seen fighting between rival tribes, largely over cattle-rustling.

"We have information that five armed raiders stormed the home and started shooting people who were celebrating Christmas," police official Julius Sunkuli told the AFP news agency.

Cattle raiding has been a common practice for centuries among the nomadic groups of northern Kenya and Uganda, correspondents say.

But the raids have become increasingly lethal in recent decades as tribal warriors acquired modern weapons, which flooded the region following conflicts in Uganda, Sudan and Somalia, they say.