Fires burn as hopes fade in Kenyan slums

By Tim Cocks

KIBERA, Kenya (Reuters) - Nineteen-year-old Abdallah Juma could scarcely contain his joy when he voted in Kenya's presidential election for the first time.

"I was so excited. It was my first time to be choosing my new president," the school dropout said, emerging from one of myriad rusty iron shacks crowding east Africa's biggest slum.

Now his hopes lie in ashes, he says -- alongside the smoldering ruins of shops and burnt out shells of minibuses littering Kibera after days of rioting and bloodshed.

President Mwai Kibaki was hastily sworn in to a second term in office on Sunday, after an election on Thursday marred by accusations of rigging and ethnic violence.

Opposition challenger Raila Odinga and his supporters denounced the poll as fraudulent and demanded a recount. Kibaki's ruling party has rejected this as "laughable."

"I'm disappointed," said Juma, who voted for Odinga, sweeping ash from his front entrance with worn out trainers. "We were denied our democratic rights. We voted for nothing."

Riots have erupted all over the east African nation -- normally seen as an island of relative stability in a conflict-ridden region.

International observers criticized the vote count and there is a growing toll of deaths from mobs or police bullets.

In the western opposition stronghold of Kisumu, witnesses reported 21 bodies at a hospital mortuary on Monday, almost all of them victims of gunshot wounds. Gangs of youths attacked shops and drank their looted beer.

Rioters in the eastern coastal town of Likoni burned tires in the street. Cars lined-up outside petrol stations, bank machines ran out of money, and holiday-makers were stranded.

Back in Kibera, police chased protesters through the morning, firing tear gas and shots into the air and breaking up makeshift road blocks.

Some demonstrators cried "peace" and sat in the street clutching palm leaves. Police beat them with batons.

"HUNGRY"

Lying a short distance from Nairobi's wealthy tree-lined suburbs guarded by watchmen and barricaded behind electric fences, Kibera's monstrously crowded streets have become a symbol for Africa's poverty and urban blight.

Clay huts mingle with tin-roof shacks housing three quarters of a million people. Piles of stagnant rubbish and plastic bags mount up on dirt alleyways. Homes have no running water or sewerage pipes. A lucky few have electricity.