Kenyan Brazil fan killed after France win

NAIROBI, July 5: Kenyan football fans beat to death a young man supporting Brazil in a row after France's World Cup victory at the weekend, police said today.

''They were going home after watching the game when an argument came up between them about the match,'' district deputy police boss Charles Gathiari told Reuters from the village in western Siaya district where the incident took place.

Despite not having a decent national team, Kenyans are feverish soccer fans, following the English Premier League and now the World Cup with almost religious fervour.

Fights in bars over soccer are common.

When a passerby came across the fight after France knocked out Brazil 1-0 on Saturday night, he carried the 21-year-old Brazil fan, Austin Ochieng' Okello, to his house where he died overnight, Gathiari said.

The other two men, who had been supporting France and apparently began taunting Okello, fled and were still missing.

The youth's father, retired teacher Joseph Okello Omollo, was devastated at losing his only son.

''Just because of a simple thing like a soccer match,'' he was quoted as saying in the Daily Nation newspaper.

''I am sure these people do not know where Brazil is located from Siaya, let alone the distance.''

REUTERS