Bewildered tourists find chaos on Kenya's coast

By Arjun Kohli

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Tourists arriving in Mombasa on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast were expecting to find the usual colourful fruit and vegetable markets lining the streets.

Instead, they found angry supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga roaming the road from the airport, which was littered with broken glass and burning tyres.

President Mwai Kibaki's disputed election victory on Sunday triggered a wave of tribal clashes in one of Africa's most stable democracies that shocked the world.

By Tuesday, about 250 people had died.

"We should be in mourning," said Achal Kapila, a London-based lawyer who had planned to see in 2008 watching the sunset over an estuary on the palm-fringed South Coast.

In better times, tourists and affluent Kenyans gathered there for picnics near an ancient mosque on the white beach.

No champagne corks were popped this year, though.

Holidaymakers were held back after their flights landed at Mombasa's Moi International Airport while police arranged armed convoys to escort buses to hotels -- most of them safely removed from Kenya's second city and the unrest there.