A man is beaten by a mob (left) while a minibus driver lies unconscious in front of his vandalised vehicle in Nairobi yesterday. - Reuters

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters):

A mob torched a Kenyan church yesterday, killing villagers cowering inside, as the death toll from ethnic riots triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election soared to nearly 200.

The opposition said around 250 people had died.

In the most grisly incident, about 30 people died when fire engulfed a church near Eldoret town where scores of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe had taken refuge in fear of their lives.

The attack revived traumatic memories in East Africa of the slaughter in churches of tens of thousands of victims of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, and the mass suicide of hundreds of Ugandan cult members in a church fire in 2000.

Charred bodies

Police, reporters and a senior security official said the blaze at the Kenya Assemblies of God Pentecostal church was deliberately started by a gang of youths.

Witnesses said charred bodies, including women and children, were strewn about the smouldering wreckage.

"This is the first time in history that any group has attacked a church. We never expected the savagery to go so far," police spokes-man Eric Kiraithe said.

Reinforcements were being rushed to the area to arrest all troublemakers "regardless of their status in society", he said.

"Our officers are exercising a lot of restraint in maintaining the law. This restraint will not last forever."

Residents and a security source said the victims had sought safety at the church, about eight kilometres (five miles) from Eldoret.

"Some youths came to the church," said a local reporter from the scene. "They fought with the boys who were guarding it, but they were overpowered and the youths set fire to the church."

The explosion of violence in one of Africa's most stable democracies and strongest economies has shocked the world and left Kenyans aghast as long-simmering tribal rivalries pitch communities against each other.

Leading local newspaper, the Daily Nation, feared Kenya was on "the verge of a complete meltdown".

Police were out in force in the capital on New Year's Day, and the streets were quieter. But details emerged of a rising death toll and widespread destruction in one of the country's darkest moments since 1963 independence from Britain.

Washington first congratulated Kibaki - then switched that line to express "concerns about irregularities".

Probe into irregularities

Britain, the European Union and others pointedly avoiding congratulating Kibaki, expressed concern, urged reconciliation and a probe into suspected voting irregularities.

"The 2007 general elections have fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections," the EU observer mission said in its formal assessment.

Western diplomats shuttled between both sides, trying to start mediation. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Kibaki and his opposition rival Raila Odinga.

"The government thinks they can wait this out, but we're not convinced," one diplomat in Nairobi told Reuters.