Hundreds die in violence over disputed Kenyan poll

Hundreds of Kenyans have died in post-election violence and Irish missionaries there are giving refuge to thousands of people fleeing the fighting.

Latest figures show that at least 200 people have died including 30, many of them children, who were burned to death after a mob attacked and set fire to a Pentecostal church in the western town of Eldoret.

Fr Paul Brennan, a Patrician father in Eldoret, said local churches were filled with refugees from the fighting, with up to 5,000 in the main cathedral. "People are locked in their houses in fear. Others are taking refuge in numbers. Gangs are roaming the roads, putting up barricades," he added.

Fr Brennan said he had been advised that it wasn't safe to travel to the scene of the killing. However, ambulances provided by the Patrician fathers had been used to transport maimed survivors of the massacre to hospital in Eldoret, and they had confirmed that at least 30 people died in the attack.

Witnesses said charred bodies, including women and children, were strewn around the smouldering wreckage. The victims were members of president Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, who have borne the brunt of nationwide violence since his disputed win over opposition challenger Raila Odinga.

Yesterday, EU election monitors said the presidential poll "fell short of international standards".

In an interim report, chief EU monitor Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said the tallying process "lacked credibility" and called for an independent inquiry.

In Molo, another of the areas worst affected by inter-ethnic violence, Franciscan Brother Tony Dolan said he had brought three bodies to the mortuary where 14 more local victims were laid out.

Some had been burned in their home, while others died from gunshot wounds or blows from a panga (machete). Hundreds of homes had been torched in his area, he added, and families had lost their recently-harvested crops. Brother Dolan said the Franciscans expected to house 500 displaced people in their agricultural college in Molo last night, but were not fearful of their own security.

Both missionaries said the police had been doing a relatively good job to limit the violence. Brother Dolan said politicians bore the main responsibility for the violence through their "abysmal" leadership.

"They are just hungry for power and they made all sorts of promises to people that created high expectations. Political corruption has been worse in the past six months than it ever was," he added.

In the coastal city of Mombasa, 500 local people sought refuge in a church run by the Kiltegan Fathers after five hours of rioting in the slum districts. Fr Gabriel Dolan said the spontaneous protests at the election result had been peaceful at first but later descended into violence.

While looting was widespread, there was relatively little violence against people, he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday warned Irish citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Kenya.

(Additional reporting Reuters)