NAIROBI (AFP) -- Nationwide violence since a disputed presidential poll may have cost the Kenyan economy close to a billion dollars, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

“The ministry estimates that close to a billion dollars was lost in the economic slowdown as a result of the violence,” a Finance Ministry spokesman told AFP.
“This includes a wide range of disruptions including actual damage, loss of business, failure to turn up for work, tourist cancellations,” the spokesman added.
The ministry said the economy, which was projected to grow by seven percent this year, will suffer some setbacks.
Nationwide rioting and tribal killings spurred by the reelection of President Mwai Kibaki in the December 27 polls left at least 600 people dead and a quarter of a million others displaced.
Many businesses and private homes were burnt or looted mainly in the capital Nairobi, the port city of Mombasa and the western towns of Kisumu and Eldoret.