By David Lewis
NAIVASHA, Kenya (Reuters) - Many fled to the police station as evening fell, others sought refuge in prison. The rest huddled in the dark, singing songs to raise their spirits, exhausted by a stand-off with mobs baying for their blood.
For most of Naivasha's Luo and Luhya community, after a second day of attacks by Kikuyu gangs, the only thing on their mind was returning to the corner of Kenya they are from and where they know they are welcome.
"The government should take us back to our homeland in the west," said Samson Matovo, a Luhya who normally works on flower farms by Lake Naivasha but spent the day faced by hundreds of machete and truncheon wielding youths.
"I am not at all happy to stay around here. We are big enemies now," Matovo added. "Even if it calms down over the next few weeks, it will erupt again."
Plumes of smoke rose from different parts of the lakeside town, about an hour's drive north of Nairobi, as members of the Kikuyu tribe of President Mwai Kibaki hunted down Luos, Luhyas and Kalenjins thought to be opposition supporters.
The Kikuyus vowed revenge for earlier killings of members of their community in other parts of the east African nation.
Men, women and children sheltered at a police post on the edge of the town's country club, once a haven for tourists.
A large blue truck ferried them to the police station and prison, now impromptu refugee camps.
Each time the truck came, officers tried to shout orders that women and children be allowed to go first but everyone piled on with as many possessions as they could.
Just eight or so armed police officers separated them from a crowd of hundreds of Kikuyus brandishing clubs and machetes. One held up a crude sign saying "No Luo going home, no peace".
"We're getting out because there is no security here. We're being beaten, we're being harassed, we don't know what else to do," said Moses Odour, clamouring to get into the police truck.
Nearby, police opened fire as a mob attacked another truck carrying displaced people to a flower farm.
REVENGE
Naivasha, set in the Rift Valley, had for weeks avoided the violence that has killed about 850 people since Kenya's disputed Dec. 27 presidential election.
Ethnic clashes have killed nearly 100 people in recent days in the Rift alone, where fighting has largely been centred on Naivasha and nearby Nakuru.
Although ethnic tensions and conflict over land have simmered in Kenya since colonial times and often been manipulated by politicians, the violence has never been as bad as the last few weeks.
After Kibaki was declared winner of the election, members of his Kikuyu tribe were targeted in parts of western Kenya, home to opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the vote was rigged.
Many Kikuyus were amongst the 250,000 displaced by the violence, fleeing to their central strongholds or leaving the country entirely. Now, they are retaliating.
"This is all about revenge, not politics," Matovo said.
"We were sitting here as brother and sister. But now they're attacking us because their people were evicted from the west of Kenya," he said.
Most local and international observers say the election was flawed. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is in the country to try and resolve the crisis, has acknowledged the violence had gone beyond an electoral dispute.
"They are the ones who started all this. They should all leave," spat Kikuyu businessman David Chege, as friends waved clubs and shouted abuse at policemen rescuing an elderly lady.
Kenya's Security Minister, George Saitoti, was jeered by hundreds on Monday as he addressed crowds, telling them not to take the law into their own hands.
Few think they are safe.
"We just want a vehicle to take us home. We can't remain here -- it is impossible," said 36 year-old Luo Karen Achieng as she ferried her son to the police station.
"We've been here for 22 years but we are not many in Naivasha so we can't fight on," she wept.
