Canada has condemned violence in Kenya stemming from the disputed presidential election and is promising $1 million in emergency aid to help those affected by the unrest.

Residents looking to receive food formed long queues Friday behind a vehicle from the Kenyan Red Cross preparing to distribute aid in the Kibera slum area of Nairobi.
(Ben Curtis/Associated Press)

The money will go to the Kenya Red Cross for medical supplies, food, water and shelter, the government said late Thursday in a news release.

Clashes over the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki have claimed the lives of more than 300 people and forced about 100,000 people from their homes, human rights groups say.

"Canada is very concerned about the number of Kenyans displaced in their own country because of this violence and lawlessness," said International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda.

International observers have cited numerous irregularities in the Dec. 27 vote and Kenya's attorney general has called for an independent body to verify the vote tally.

The party of opposition leader Raila Odinga made fresh calls on Friday for a new election, even as mediators tried to get the ruling and opposition parties together for negotiations.

Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe and Odinga's Luos have each accused the other of genocide.

"Reports that violence is ethnically driven, and in some cases targets women and children, are alarming," said Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier. "Canadians are shocked at the horrific deaths of people taking refuge in an Eldoret church, as well as at the loss of life elsewhere in Kenya."

As many as 50 people died Tuesday when a mob in Eldoret, about 300 kilometres from the capital of Nairobi, burned to the ground a church where hundreds of Kenyans were taking shelter.

The government is warning Canadians to avoid non-essential travel to the East African country.