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By Daniel Wallis

MOLO, Kenya, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The European Union's chief election monitor in Kenya on Friday condemned clashes that have killed hundreds and displaced thousands in the run-up to a Dec. 27 presidential and parliamentary election.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, chief EU observer, flew to hot spots by helicopter, stopping in Molo where thousands of people have set up makeshift camps after being forced to flee violence in nearby Kuresoi.

"Seeing this many people living in these sorts of conditions is heart-rending. It is beneath Kenya ... It's a shock to witness these kinds of scenes here," Lambsdorff said in Molo town, in the country's central Rift Valley province.

Some 300 people have died, and 60,000 fled their homes, in separate clan-linked land clashes in the western Mount Elgon region, also fuelled by politicians, activists say.

The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) has pledged to set up temporary voting stations to make sure the displaced can vote.

"We implore the ECK to redouble their efforts to ensure the people here in Molo are able to not only to cast their vote, but to do so in the constituency in which they originally lived," Lambsdorff said.

Up to 10,000 people from Kuresoi are living in makeshift tents in Molo, short of food as their crops were burned along with their homes.

"We can't pinpoint who exactly is behind it, but these are politicians doing it. We suspect they want people not to vote, and they want that land for themselves," said Bernard Chege Mwangi, a leader of the displaced.

POLICE PROTECTION

Police Commissioner Hussein Ali said officers had been dispatched there and to other clash-hit areas and would guard more than 20,000 polling stations.

"Everything is under control and people in those areas, who will vote, will be assured by the presence of the police," Ali told a news conference in Nairobi.

Elsewhere on Friday, candidate James Orengo's driver was killed in Ugenya in western Kenya. Supporters of rival Stephen Mwanga beat him with rocks and burned two of Orengo's vehicles, a government security official said on condition of anonymity.

Although Kenya has a history of tribal violence at election time, it has avoided the all-out conflict and turmoil suffered by some of its east African neighbours.

Earlier in Eldoret, Lambsdorff met local politicians.

Nicholas Biwott, a former cabinet minister running for parliament with President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) coalition, told him bribes and vote-buying were common.

"It is widespread, but I think it is a measure of desperation ... It also creates resentment among those who don't get money," he said. "People are looking at the individual. If they don't like you, you won't win."

Kenyan media said Britain had imposed travel bans on Biwott and Environment Minister David Mwiraria, an ally of Kibaki, over corruption allegations. The British High Commission declined to comment.

Some 14 million of Kenya's 36 million people will be eligible to vote in the polls. Opposition candidate Raila Odinga leads opinion polls, ahead of Kibaki by a small margin.

U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger said he expected a smooth election and urged the main candidates to keep in close contact to ensure a minimum of unrest.

"I don't think the elections are going to be rigged. I really do have confidence the elections will be free and fair. Will they be perfect? No," he told reporters. "But I think they are going to move the country ahead." (Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri; writing by Wangui Kanina, editing by Bryson Hull and Andrew Roche)

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