20100801
reuters

BURNT FOREST Kenya (Reuters) - Naomi Kamau, her three children and another woman faced a group of screaming armed men wielding machetes within minutes of President Mwai Kibaki being declared winner of a disputed 2007 election.

The Kamau's, ethnic Kikuyus, fled their Nyakinyua farm deep in the fertile Rift Valley hounded by Kalenjin youths angry over what they felt was rigging of the vote by Kibaki.

Tribal tensions fanned by politicians during elections have turned Burnt Forest some 300 km (188 miles) northwest of the capital Nairobi into a litmus test of violence in Kenya's polls, and an August 4 referendum on a new constitution is no exception.

Some Burnt Forest residents, mostly Kikuyus, spoke of rising tribal tensions and some, like Kamau, have abandoned their farms and others have sent their wives and children to safe havens.

"We fled our farm because we are afraid of more killings," 33-year-old Naomi Kamau said at a camp some 150 km south of her farm where families who fled the violence have found shelter.

"We have been receiving veiled threats. They (Kalenjin) are saying whether the constitution passes or fails at the ballot we will have to go," she said referring to the referendum.

"They tell us: you can plant, but the maize is ours."

Kamau said after the fighting in which some 1,300 were slaughtered countrywide, she and her family resumed planting wheat, maize and beans on their farm until last week.