Kenya's reluctant refugees find sympathetic haven

By David Lewis

MULANDA, Uganda (Reuters) - Kenya's election months were good times for teenage budding musician Robert Kinganga -- he was given a fistful of money, a microphone and a big crowd to entertain.

The 17-year-old, who prefers to be called King G, wrote lyrics extolling incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and then sang them to hip hop beats, winning votes for the president and local fame for himself in Busia, western Kenya.

"But now I can't go back there," he says from his new home in Mulanda refugee camp in eastern Uganda, where at least 6,000 Kenyans, mostly from Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, fled to escape post-election violence.

"I am a wanted man. The Luos and the (opposition) ODM, they will get me," he added. "I am now well known and they say that I am the one who made Kibaki win in that area."

Kinganga's tale is a common one amongst the mostly Kikuyu Kenyans who had been living in Luo-dominated south-western Kenya.

As soon as Kibaki was declared winner of the controversial December 27 poll, Luo youths went on the rampage, torching Kikuyu homes and businesses and beating those they could.

"I fled and I am safe but now all I have are these clothes and this," he said, pointing to a large scar on his right arm.

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