By Tim Cocks

ELDORET, Kenya, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Thousands of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe were fleeing the Rift Valley on Wednesday, running across the wastes of an ethnic battleground few Kenyans can believe is their country.

About 30 Kikuyus died when a mob torched a church near Eldoret on Tuesday, a slaughter evoking memories of ethnic violence usually associated with other states in Africa, not one of its most stable.

Thousands have taken shelter in churches and police stations across Eldoret town, the main city in the fertile Rift Valley about 300 km (190 miles) north of Nairobi, prompting a humanitarian crisis as food and water run short.

"We've been sleeping outside of the airport. Can you imagine how cold they were?" asked children's home operator Patrick Kariuki, gesturing to 23 youths with him.

"I never thought Kenya could be like this. They're killing us because we voted for Kibaki. Maybe the election was rigged. Why don't they go to court instead of inciting?"

Violence has erupted across opposition strongholds in the east African nation over the results of a disputed presidential election that saw Kibaki narrowly defeat challenger Raila Odinga amid accusations of rigging by both sides.

The death toll from four days of clashes has risen to about 250 and the government has accused the opposition of "ethnic cleansing". In the Rift Valley, gangs of youths have burned homes and crops while chasing away Kikuyus.

Scores of sharply dressed Kenyans with piles of luggage waited to get flights to Nairobi at Eldoret airport after youths blocked the main road to the capital city with tree trunks and rocks.

Police estimate that roughly 75,000 Kenyans have fled their homes. Some have crossed into neighbouring states -- a reversal for a nation that for decades has accepted the victims of neighbouring conflicts like Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

In Eldoret, a Reuters reporter came across a roadblock manned by youths who fled when they saw police approaching.

"They are asking 'Who are you?' in Kalenjin language. If you don't understand, you are removed and killed with a panga (machete)," said Jane Chepchirchir, one of scores of people at Eldoret airport trying to flee to Nairobi.

Though people from many of Kenya's 42 tribes have been killed, it is Kibaki's tribe -- the nation's biggest, and economically dominant -- that has seen organised targeting.

Some at the roadblocks have ordered people to produce their national identity cards and have killed those whose names are Kikuyu, witnesses said.

The Rift Valley is home primarily to the Kalenjin tribe of former president Daniel arap Moi, but many Kikuyus have moved there to farm and intermarried, as in Chepchirchir's case.

"I feel so bad these are my people killing, but Kikuyus are also my people because of my husband, so I am in the middle. Can't we all just be Kenyans?" Chepchirchir asked.

Under Moi's 24-year reign, which ended when Kibaki was elected in 2002, the Rift repeatedly saw political violence with Kalenjin youth backing Moi's KANU party attacking tribes associated with the opposition.

Some of the politicians now part of Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement emerged as leaders of youth movements blamed for ethnic violence at elections in 1992 and 1997 which saw hundreds of mainly Kikuyus killed and thousands displaced.

In Nairobi and other Kikuyu areas, Kenyans say Kikuyu politicians have enlisted the Mungiki criminal gang against supporters of Odinga. (Writing by Bryson Hull, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Keith Weir)

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