Kenya's new refugees take stock of their losses

By Tim Cocks

TARAKWA, Kenya (Reuters) - Until a few days ago, Paul Kariuki had only seen refugees of African conflicts on television -- it never occurred to the Kenyan small trader that he might one day become one.

"It's my first time to be a refugee. I can't quite believe it," he said, as he left a queue for maize handouts he could not have imagined needing before this week.

"I feel humiliated," he added, adjusting the collar on his smart, blue fleece jacket. "I had money, I had children in secondary school, I was selling milk and wheat to the market. Now I've got nothing because they burned it all."

Kariuki is one of 250,000 Kenyans uprooted by days of riots, looting and ethnic violence that has convulsed Kenya after a controversial poll returned President Mwai Kibaki to power amid opposition accusations of rigging.

The violence has been worst in the Rift Valley, where gangs of disaffected youths supporting opposition challenger Raila Odinga have targeted Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, seen by many as having a stranglehold on east Africa's biggest economy.

Scores have been killed in attacks with machetes, sticks and fires. Hundreds of homes have been burned. The United Nations has rushed to get food to tens of thousands facing hunger.

Thousands of people 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.

"ABSOLUTELY NOTHING"