Victim: Machete attacks the 'work of the devil'*

    * Story Highlights
    * Man survives machete attack, says tribalism is rampant and must
"be stopped"
    * As many as 500,000 Kenyans have been affected by post-election
violence
    * An estimated 250,000 people have been driven from their homes
    * Pastor in town where 40,000 have fled says, "We have no aid
assistance"

MOLO, Kenya (CNN) -- Lying in a hospital bed in this rural hub of
Kenya's Rift Valley, a man describes surviving two machete wounds to his
head and multiple slashes to his hands. He says he was attacked by
people who now live by the rules of tribalism.
art.machete.fire.ap.jpg

Witnesses say attackers are living by the rules of tribalism, often
using the machete to inflict punishment.

"They have to be stopped," he said. "It is the work of the devil."

Nearby, another machete-attack survivor, John Machana, said he thought
he was a dead man when he was attacked.

"I was sure they would kill me," he said, nursing slashes to his
backside and still lying in his bloodstained clothes.

"They told me the blood in Kenya now had to be pure and clean, and they
accused me of being of mixed tribal blood."

Both men are among the hundreds of thousands of Kenyans victimized by a
weeklong spate of violence that has left nearly 500 people dead after
the nation's disputed presidential election. Witnesses and victims have
said in some regions gangs of men are terrorizing people with machetes.
Photo See photos of machete violence »

The Kenyan Red Cross says it is trying to meet the needs of more than a
half-million affected Kenyans, including more than 250,000 people who
have been driven from their homes. Thousands are escaping ethnic
violence and, while they are lucky to leave with their lives, they now
have little else.

Squatting on the grass, a mother of eight cried quietly as she explained
that she needs food, water, medicine and clothing for her children,
including her youngest, who is just 2 weeks old. Video Watch survivors
describe their desperate situation »

She and her family are among an estimated 40,000 people to flee to Molo,
a town on the edge of Kenya's desolate Rift Valley.

Officials in Molo say the victims just keep coming by the hundreds.
Especially at night, they are on the move, escaping the killing, raping,
burning and looting, a consequence of tribal clashes.

Pastor George Keliuki presides over the Baptist church in Molo.
Thousands have taken refuge in the church's back yard. But Keliuki said
he has nothing more than beans and blankets to give them for the moment.

"We just entrust our lives to God because we have no aid assistance
right now unless the international community intervenes," he said.

The victims of the crisis say there are still families trapped in rural
areas -- dead, dying or too terrified to find a way out. They are caught
in the election turmoil that erupted when Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki
was declared the winner of the December 27 election, a result the
opposition party disputes.

Kibaki on Saturday appeared to offer a way out of the stalemate with the
opposition over the disputed elections, announcing he was ready to form
a government of national unity.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga said he and his Orange Democratic
Movement were ready to negotiate with the president without
preconditions. Odinga's party had earlier insisted Kibaki must resign
before talks could take place.

U.S. Envoy Jendayi Frazer on Monday said she was able to get Kibaki and
Odinga to agree to talk under the mediation of the African Union's
chairman by relaying the concerns of the Kenyan people.

Ghanaian President John Kufuor, the AU chairman, is expected to arrive
in Kenya Tuesday evening to mediate the talks between the two, Frazer
said, which has led Odinga's party to cancel a planned rally earlier
that day.

"I think that both are prepared to move the country forward on an
understanding of that basis," Frazer said.