As many as 50 people died Tuesday after a church sheltering hundreds of Kenyans fleeing days of election-related violence was burned to the ground.

Displaced people gather at a shelter in the slum of Kiambiu in Nairobi Tuesday.
(Karel Prinsloo/Associated Press)

"There was a huge mob, they attacked the church," said a witness in Eldoret, about 300 kilometres from the capital, Nairobi.

Initial reports suggested 15 people had died, but the death toll rose to at least 50 after a Red Cross volunteer counted the bodies.

President Mwai Kibaki, who won another five-year term in a disputed weekend election, called Tuesday for all political parties to meet to end the violence that has killed as many as 270 people since Saturday's vote.

His main opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, said he would refuse to meet unless Kibaki concedes he didn't win the election.

"If he announces that he was not elected, then I will talk to him," Odinga told the Associated Press.

Wanted results quickly: elections official

Kibaki, 76, was sworn into office Sunday immediately after the election results were announced on television. Kibaki defeated Odinga by 231,728 votes in the closest race in Kenya's history.

Within minutes of the announcement, the slums — home to tens of thousands of opposition supporters — exploded into fresh violence, much of it driven by tribal divisions. Deadly clashes had already seized the country for two days while Kenyans awaited the results of the election.

Election commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu said Tuesday he was pressured to announce the election results quickly, while Western ambassadors asked for a delay of several days to address allegations of voting irregularities.

The results have inflamed simmering tribal rivalries within Kenya, one of Africa's most stable democracies. Members of the majority Kikuyu tribe tend to back Kibaki, while supporters of Odinga are mostly ethnic Luo. Both sides have accused each other of vote-rigging.

Protesters have called Kibaki's re-election a sham, while international observers said the vote did not meet the standard for a democratic election. The European Union and the United States have refused to congratulate Kibaki, while four senior Kenyan election officials have called for an independent inquiry.

Kenyans buy vegetables at a market in the Kibera slum in Nairobi Tuesday.
(Karel Prinsloo/Associated Press)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday urged Kibaki to meet with Odinga to try to quell the violence.

On Tuesday, some people ventured out into Nairobi's slums in search for food after many of the shops and markets were burned by looters. The slums are home to one-third of the city's population.

While skirmishes were reported in Nairobi Tuesday, the day appeared to be much calmer. Much of the capital has been a ghost town as residents camped out in their homes.

Odinga to defy rally ban

Police said they won't allow a mass opposition rally scheduled for Thursday in the capital to go ahead, citing security concerns.

Opposition leaders have called for more than one million people to rally against Kibaki, who trailed Odinga in polls in the weeks before the vote.

Odinga insisted Tuesday he planned to go ahead with the rally, saying: "It doesn't matter what they say."

While Kibaki won the presidential vote, most of his cabinet lost their parliamentary seats. Odinga's party won a majority of seats.

The discrepancy between the parliamentary and presidential results, unexplained delays in vote tallying and anomalies that included a 115 per cent turnout in one constituency have fuelled allegations of rigging.

With files from the Associated Press