By Tim Cocks ELDORET, Kenya, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Kenyans forced from their homes by ethnic violence after a disputed election see little hope of returning soon -- as few have anything to go back to. Those uprooted by clashes now number 255,000, aid agencies say, most of them fleeing angry mobs on the rampage in the Rift Valley region, northwest of Nairobi. Gangs of youths armed with machetes have killed scores of villagers, looting and burning hundreds of homes. President Mwai Kibaki was expected in the area on Wednesday to meet refugees, many of whom say the government failed to protect them. Jackson Kimathi sneered with more than a hint of bitterness when asked when he might be able to go home -- he currently sleeps on a patch of grass in the Rift's main town of Eldoret. "Home? Which home, exactly? Would you like to show me where is my home? It doesn't exist -- everything has been destroyed." Kibaki was sworn in last week, after a Dec. 27 poll the opposition says was rigged. Rioting erupted in opposition strongholds in the country's main towns, leading to clashes with police and hundreds of deaths. But the worst violence has been seen in villages in the Rift Valley, where angry youths have targeted civilians from Kibaki's relatively prosperous Kikuyu tribe. More than 200 of the national death toll of 500 have died there. Residents expect more trouble following Kibaki's announcement of his cabinet on Tuesday in what opposition challenger Raila Odinga's supporters say was a provocation. Many of the tens of thousands of people displaced by the conflict say they have no idea when they will be able to restart their lives, even if security does return. Scores of businesses have been burned. Farms have been left fallow. "I have no expectations of being able to start again," said 44-year-old farmer Kimathi, who lost his two-bedroom house and his grain and animals in an attack by a torch-wielding gang. Many of the refugees shelter in churches, while others hide in police stations. But most have gathered in open fields where a few makeshift plastic sheet tents dot the landscape and people sit surrounded by their belongings, bags of maize and food. The temperature at night is frigid. Eldoret is at about 2,000 metres (6,562 ft) above sea level and even inside, several blankets are required to keep warm. Some refugees are still trying to find the bodies of loved ones killed in vicious attacks, including a massacre in a church in which 30 people were shut inside and burned to death. "How can we think about going home when there are still bodies being collected from massacres?" said Myne Wambui, 20, as she peeled cabbage into a plastic bowl -- nearing the end of her food stocks. Aid agencies say many of the displaced have the skills to start again but building gutted homes from scratch is a daunting task for a largely settled, mercantile people. "It would be a tragedy if we had to stay here more than a couple of months in response to this crisis," said U.N. World Food Programme spokesman Marcus Prior. "Our hope is that people will quickly be able to put their lives back together." Twenty-one-year-old John Maga was a successful tailor before his equipment was looted and his stall burned. Now he shelters under a white sheet in a field and his own shirt is torn. "I'll have to find someone to employ me. The money will be bad, but I've no choice," he said. "I don't know how long I'm going to be here, though. We need the government to assist us to build our villages again. We can't do it alone." (Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Mary Gabriel)
Ghanian President and Africa Union chairman John Kufuor walks in front of the honour guard at Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi January 8, 2008. Kufuor arrived in Kenya on Tuesday ...
