At least 48 people are reported to have been killed in clashes over land between pastoral and farming communities in southeast Kenya.
Joseph Kavoo, Tana river district police chief, said Wednesday's fighting saw people burnt in their houses, hacked to death, or shot with arrows.
"They were armed with crude weapons: machetes, bows and arrows and spears. Some had guns. As a result we have lost 31 women, 11 children and six men, all totalling to 48. Sixty cattle were also killed," Robert Kitur, Coast deputy police chief told the Reuters news agency by telephone.
Wednesday's clashes in the Reketa area of Tarassa, 300 kilometres from Nairobi, mark the worst single attack since deadly post-election violence four years ago, police said.