By Antony Gitonga
GONDI, Kenya, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Groups of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe are fleeing burning homes and reprisal attacks to take refuge in fields and mosques from ethnic clashes following his controversial re-election.
Some of the fighting has pitted Luos from the west of the country who support opposition challenger Raila Odinga against Kikuyus from Kibaki's central Kenyan homeland.
At least 150 people have died in nationwide violence.
John Wanyoike said he and his family escaped from Narok town, 120 km (75 miles) west of the capital Nairobi, when rampaging youths torched homes there belonging to his kinsmen.
"The attacks were so sudden we left in a hurry without saving anything because we feared for our lives," he said in Gondi village where some 400 Kikuyus sheltered in an open field.
Nearby, frightened children wailed and men talked in low voices as they used plastic sheets to put up makeshift tents.
Kenya has never suffered the extent of ethnic blood-letting of other countries -- such as Rwanda -- in volatile east Africa.
But locals say underlying tribal prejudices fuelled by power-hungry politicians take on a nastier tone at elections.
Not all the violence was directed at Kikuyus.
In Nairobi's ethnically mixed Kiambiu slum on Tuesday, witnesses said about 100 members of Mungiki, a shadowy gang with its roots in Kikuyu traditional rituals, killed five residents.
"People are being slaughtered like chickens and the police are doing nothing," said Morgan Owino, a 28-year-old originally from western Kenya. "Mungiki are coming with brand new machetes. Someone is funding them, this is political violence."
VIOLENCE, THEN REVENGE
Vincent Ochieng, another westerner, nursed a head wound.
"Early this morning a hundred of them came with machetes and clubs and petrol and started burning houses and cutting people up ... 15 people have been killed here since the result. First it was protests, then it got violent, now this is revenge."
Standing by the ashes of his torched hotel, businessman Abdi Jirma was furious. "I am a Kenyan and I should be allowed to do my business anywhere," he yelled.
Fear spread across the country.
In Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast, the picture was much the same, as rumours spread that Kikuyus were being targeted.
And many Kikuyus fled Kisumu, a mainly Luo town that is an opposition stronghold.
Kenya has had three leaders since independence from Britain in 1963, two of them Kikuyu, including Kibaki. The other two -- founding President Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, and successor Daniel arap Moi, a Kalenjin -- were accused of fomenting tribalism.
Historians say distrust between Luos and Kikuyus began when Kenyatta sidelined Odinga's father -- Jaramogi Oginga Odinga -- after he had helped propel Kenyatta to power.
In Garissa, a town in arid northeastern Kenya near the border with Somalia, six Kikuyu families cowered at a mosque.
"These are your neighbours, you've lived with them for long," said the mosque's leader, Sheikh Ali, in a New Year sermon calling for peace and tolerance between tribes.
In nearby Maralal, police escorted buses carrying about 200 Kikuyu traders back to their central Kenya homes after they spent the night at the town's police station for safety. (Additional reporting by Nicolo Gnecchi in Nairobi and Noor Ali in Garissa; Writing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Daniel Wallis)
