By David Lewis

NAIVASHA, Kenya, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Having escaped mobs tearing through his neighbourhood hunting him and his kinsmen, farm worker Jacob Owour is breathing a sigh of relief.

But now his worry has turned from his life to his job.

"I fear I might lose my job on the flower farm as I have not reported for the last few days," he said in the police station of this Kenyan Rift Valley town, now a makeshift shelter for 8,000 people displaced by days of ethnic violence.

As relative calm returned to Naivasha, a farming town where over 40 people have been killed in ethnic fighting since Sunday, thousands of farm workers like Owour face the same dilemma.

At the police station and the prison, Luo, Luhya and Kalenjin men and women have protection and at least some food and water.

Outside the gates, between them and their jobs, remain Kikuyus, some of whom they have worked alongside for years, many of whom now appear ready to kill them.

Vengeance has been on Kikuyu minds for a week now, in retaliation for attacks after the election that targeted their kin at first, especially in the Rift Valley.

The crisis is the worst Kenya's horticultural industry has ever faced, according to one senior official. The sector employs some 30,000 people, mostly around Naivasha, and in 2006 it earned Kenya 49 billion shillings ($690 million).

Naivasha's clashes were the revenge part of a cycle that began after Kenya's Luo-led opposition rejected President Mwai Kibaki's victory in Dec. 27 elections.

Violence since then has killed over 850 people around the country, mostly in ethnic violence. Jendayi Frazer, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, said on Wednesday it had degenerated into ethnic cleansing in the Rift Valley.

BACK TO WORK?

The result is clear on the ground. Having completely closed down on Monday, many greenhouses and packing sheds on the lake shore are still working well below capacity. On one farm just 30 percent of the workers turned up to work on Tuesday.

Many Kikuyu workers have returned but those from other tribes have not and growers are having to recruit day workers to catch up with picking as the Valentine's Day rush nears.

With tourism, Kenya's top foreign exchange earner, and tea plantations also being hit by post-election violence, sustained problems for the flower and vegetable farms would be a serious blow to the country's economy.

The precision needed in the industry, which can move a rose bud from the field to a shelf in Europe within 48 hours, means there is little margin for error.

In response, the Lake Naivasha Growers Group (LNGG) and the Red Cross are planning to build a camp for the displaced from where farm workers will be ferried to and from work in safety.

Despite simmering tensions in town, which have seen crowds from both sides try and attack individuals from the other, the LNGG is confident the clashes will not be brought to work.

And the colleagues who they would be returning to work with seem to agree. "If they come back, I'm ready to work with them," said Mary Njoroge, who manages a grading and packing shed.

But for many, the unrest has left deep scars.

"There is nothing to get me to stay here," said Joseph Anyuka, a flower farmer who has worked in the industry for 15 years, sheltering at the police station.

"I bought land but can forget that. I need security. They can bring the flower farms to western Kenya. We have an airport so we can fly them to Europe. Instead of perishing here we can work well there," he said. (Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ibon Villelabeitia

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