CHAPEL HILL - A Kenyan aid organization that a UNC-Chapel Hill student founded to bring together rival tribes in Africa's largest slum has been shut down by tribal violence.

Carolina for Kibera serves 25,000 people a year through a health clinic, a summer youth sports program staffed by UNC-CH volunteers and other programs. The organization has closed indefinitely because of rioting in the wake of last week's disputed presidential election.

"Much of the work that we've done ... is being undone by this politically instigated violence," said President Rye Barcott, who founded the agency in 2001 while a Marine ROTC student at UNC-CH. No Carolina for Kibera student volunteers were in Kibera during last Thursday's election, but the organization has about two dozen staff members in the slum of nearly a million people outside Nairobi. Only a teenage client has suffered direct injury, burned by a fire set at a kiosk near her job.

Kibera erupted after its parliamentary representative, Raila Odinga, lost to incumbent Mwai Kibaki despite an overwhelming lead in early voting. Hundreds are dead, tens of thousands homeless, and poor Kenyans struggle to meet basic, daily needs.

"It's dangerous to leave your home, so unless you've had a stockpile of food to last for several weeks, which most Kenyans don't, you're in pretty bad shape right now," said Emily Reynolds Pierce, vice president of Carolina for Kibera.

"The worst time is at night," Carolina for Kibera Executive Director Salim Mohamed wrote in e-mail to Reynolds Pierce from Nairobi.

Carolina for Kibera, which is affiliated with UNC and is housed at its Center for Global Initiatives, operates on a budget of about $250,000 a year. Each summer as many as six American students volunteer in Africa. There, the organization has two small clinic buildings and an office that houses a girls' health center and a youth sports center.

The group closed its offices Dec. 15 and its clinics Dec. 26 in fear of election turmoil. "This is probably the worst-case scenario that we could have imagined would happen," Reynolds Pierce said.

A 2003 alumna, Reynolds Pierce was among the first UNC-CH students to volunteer in Kibera. She was to return later this month but said that won't happen. Barcott also canceled a visit this week by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to show off the clinic and health center.

Election observers inside and outside Kenya have accused Kibaki of stealing the election. He represents the ruling Kikuya tribe, which makes up a quarter of the nation and has dominated Kenyan society since the 1960s.

Odinga, a businessman who promised economic and tribal equality, appeared to have won by a wide margin before final tallies closed the gap. Odinga represents Kibera in the Parliament, and his loss provoked Kiberan young men to riot, killing Kikuyas and destroying their businesses. Up to 50 died in a church north of Nairobi after 300 sought refuge there and it was set on fire.

In e-mail to Reynolds Pierce, Mohamed, who leads the programs in Kenya, said the staff is safe but expressed fear that Odinga's million-person march and rally planned for today could "turn ugly."

"[Odinga has] made public statements that he wants [the march] to be peaceful," Barcott said, "but that is an extremely dangerous proposition because to try and control a mob like that, given what's already occurred, is just a recipe for disaster."

Barcott, who fought with the Marines in Bosnia and Iraq, said ethnic divisions will harden if the candidates don't defuse them.

"Both political figures are not doing enough to call for unity and peace and directly speak to those constituents who are taking to the streets," he said. "This will be best resolved if the Kenyans do it themselves, but I do think that the international pressure to delegitimize these bogus election results is a positive force."

Reynolds Pierce said, "You work so hard to try to instill in the youth ... feelings of cooperation. We only reach 5,000 youth out of the more than 700,000 people that live there. None of our youth that we work with are participating in the violence, but there are so many other people that live there.

'THE STREETS OF KIBERA ARE ASHES'

Bri O'Donnell volunteers in an orphanage in Kibera. She wrote on Facebook.com that on Tuesday morning she and others ventured deep into the slums to purchase some food at one of the last standing shops that wasn't looted.

"The streets of Kibera are ashes ... no shops to go buy food. No matatus [collective taxis/buses] are running, and most cars have been burnt. I have been told that the international airport is running but that getting there presents many difficulties as roads are blocked. I don't leave till next Thursday, so I am just going to pray that things go well in the coming week.

"For of those of you concerned with the kids, ... the large majority are OK, but the chicken pox are making their way through the centre, with about six kids infected. Also, Wallace [one of the orphans] is really sick with pneumonia. We have taken him to Ushirika [a clinic] twice yesterday, but I think we might have to hire a cab today to take him to Kenyatta [a hospital]. In the past week he has lost at least 10-15 lbs., and it scares me because things are sort of helpless in Kibera."