Kenya's helpless students traumatized by crisis

By Michael Georgy

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Winnie Atieno is a typical Kenyan high school dropout these days. She loved math and sciences and dreamt of becoming a doctor -- until the men with machetes came around.

The 14-year-old and her family fled to a makeshift camp like thousands of others fearing for their lives after ethnic bloodshed spilled out of a disputed December 27 election.

Studies are the last thing on her mind.

"They tried to kill my father. They cut him," she said softly, as he pulled up his shirt sleeve to show a scar.

Kofi Annan, the former U.N. boss mediating between Kenya's political parties, aims to reach an agreement soon.

Even if he does, there is no relief in sight for families like Winnie's at the Jamhuri Showground.

Its soccer stadium and horse stables are now home to traumatized Kenyans unable to return to their slum dwellings which have been burned down, looted or occupied by members of rival tribes.

Most are Luos. Their children attended classes and played with Kikuyu friends before the disputed election.

Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed and 300,000 uprooted in violence that has shattered Kenya's image as a stable democracy and a regional centre for business, tourism and transport.

Idle camp dwellers sat on hay stuffed into sacks beside mattresses and other meager belongings collected in the mayhem.

They first sensed danger when they found leaflets on their homes warning them to leave or "suffer the consequences".

Some parents said they were convinced the bloodshed had been planned because teachers from rival tribes took their children's books away just before the carnage started.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TOLL

They won't find school supplies at the sprawling fairground, which in better times hosts an annual trade show offering agricultural goods, cattle and horses.

Many are desperate to move to their ancestral homelands seeking safety within their own tribe.