KENYA:Aid agencies warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Kenya yesterday as the first trucks carrying emergency supplies of food left the port of Mombasa bound for the Rift Valley, writes Rob Crilly, Kericho Town, Rift Valley.
The country has been paralysed for 10 days following disputed elections and a wave of violent protests.
Tens of thousands of people have been uprooted, as opposition supporters targeted tribes they accuse of backing President Mwai Kibaki.
Thousands of people have sought shelter in the centre of Kericho, where they are huddled close to the town's police station.
Henry Njuguna (50), a member of the Kikuyu tribe, said he had lost his home when a gang from the local Kalenjin tribe burned it down.
"I have nowhere to go, no money, no food. All we can do is wait here for help," he said.
Around him dozens of families sat with their salvaged possessions, often little more than a few cooking pots, plastic bottles and a mattress.
The weekend brought a break in the violence. Convoys of fuel tankers escorted by armed police left the capital Nairobi for towns in the Rift Valley that have been the focus of clashes.
Wubeshet Woldermariam, country director of the British charity Merlin, said food and clean water supplies were running dangerously low around the city of Kisumu, in the west of the country.
"People are being forced to drink unsafe water, risking diarrhoeal diseases, infection and dehydration. The longer the crisis continues, the greater the risk to people's health," he said.
"If peace isn't restored within the next few days, disease outbreaks and severe dehydration are very real threats."
The violence, based on tribal lines, has shocked a nation viewed as a haven of stability in east Africa. It erupted after Mwai Kibaki, who draws much of his support from the Kikuyu tribe, was declared the narrow winner in presidential elections held on December 27th.
Raila Odinga, the leading opposition candidate and a member of the Luo tribe, declared the result a fraud. About 350 people have since died in clashes.
The United Nations estimates that 250,000 Kenyans have fled their homes, 100,000 of whom need immediate help in the western Rift Valley region.
Help is starting to move. Twenty UN trucks carrying grain, pulses and vegetable oil left Mombasa yesterday. Vigilante roadblocks and general insecurity had halted shipments.
UK prime minister Gordon Brown issued an appeal to both sides to come together "I think Mr Odinga and Mr Kibaki both recognise that unless they make a change, unless something happens that brings them together, the prospects for Kenya are very poor indeed," he said in an interview with the BBC.
Hopes of a political solution grew at the weekend as President Kibaki said he was willing to consider a government of national unity, but that has been rejected by the opposition.
"A government of national unity is not acceptable to us," said spokesman Salim Lone. "But there are other formulations, such as a coalition government with genuine power sharing, that we are willing to discuss."
Opposition leader Mr Odinga said he was ready to take part in mediated talks with President Kibaki, although he also called for further protest rallies this week. Mr Odinga said he expected Ghanaian president John Kufuor, the current head of the African Union, to arrive in Nairobi within the next two days to act as a mediator for talks between the rival camps.
And he even suggested that he was ready for Mr Kibaki to retain his role as president under his old mandate from elections in 2002 while talks take place, and was prepared to co-operate with him in a future government.
Meanwhile, churches across the deeply religious country were packed as congregations prayed for peace.
"This fighting is meaningless," said Eliakim Omondi (17), at a church in Nairobi's Kibera slum that had been torched days earlier. Dozens of worshippers gathered in the blackened ruin to sing hymns. "I wish they would just talk and square everything so the fighting will stop," said Omondi.