Jennifer Titus went to choir practice yesterday, just as she does every Thursday. Thirty minutes later she was on her knees begging for her life as a mob set her church alight around her.

“I had to plead with them to let me out,” she told The Times, as smoke billowed from the roof of the Africa Inland Church in the sprawling Nairobi slum of Kibera. “I was praying and tears were coming down my face.”

Churches are in the front line of Kenya’s postelection bloodshed. More than 30 people, mostly women and children, died on Monday when the church in which they were seeking sanctuary was set ablaze in the northwestern town of Eldoret. It was burnt by gangs claiming that Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate, had been cheated of the country’s presidency by the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, who claimed a narrow win in deeply controversial circumstances.

Yesterday about 50 young men grew frustrated that a huge security cordon thrown around the slum prevented them from attending a banned opposition rally in the city centre. They vented their fury on the place of worship attended by Ms Titus, a 20-year-old unemployed woman in a threadbare skirt, and her equally impoverished fellow worshippers.

The tribalism that colours Kenyan life

The eruption of violence following Kenya's elections has brought to the fore the latent tribalism present in every day life

Multimedia

• Video comment: Richard Dowden, Africa expert

• Video: violence in Nairobi

Multimedia

• Pictures: Kenyan elections protests

Background

• FCO issues Kenya travel warning

• 50 die in blazing church as tribal war looms

• ‘We’ve spent three days hiding in our homes’

• British tourists told to stay indoors

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• Pictures: Kenyan elections protests

• Video: gunshots and tear gas at protest

• Expat blog: 'mad with fury'

Opposition leaders postponed the march until Tuesday, but later pledged to hold it today, setting the scene for further uncertainty and upheaval. Tensions ignited by allegations of ballot rigging are running so high across Kenya that Ms Titus’s church was targeted simply because it was built with money donated by Daniel arap Moi, the former President who left office in 2002 but in this election sided with the 76-year-old President Kibaki.

This time no one was killed. Church members from various tribes escaped and vowed to defend its charred remains from looters who have spread chaos across Kenya in postelection violence which is now believed to have killed 375 people.

Joshua Deya said: “Burning our church will not make Raila Odinga president.” His comment echoed that of many other Kenyans of all tribes and political persuasions who, faced with the descent into bloody chaos of one of Africa’s most wealthy and hitherto stable countries, appeared to step back from the brink yesterday.

In an unprecedented show of unity, all the country’s main newspapers shared the same front-page editorial, headlined “Save Our Beloved Country”. It blamed the country’s leaders for the catastrophe and said they must do more than issue “half-hearted calls for peace” from the comfort of hotels, limousines and walled mansions.

In his first comments since a hasty swearing-in ceremony last Sunday, President Kibaki said he was ready to talk to all parties – but only once the violence, which he blames on the Opposition, comes to an end. It was reported that army generals were putting pressure on Mr Kibaki to come to the negotiating table, by drawing up a plan for mediation between the warring sides. The British-trained Army, one of the best in Africa, appears determined to enforce law and order, but reluctant to underwrite Mr Kibaki’s regime.

Pressure on Mr Kibaki increased from another direction yesterday when Amos Wako, the Kenyan Attorney-General, said that an independent body could be asked to verify the votes in the December 27 poll.

A grim-faced Mr Odinga resorted to touring the city’s main mortuary, looking at beaten and battered bodies of supporters allegedly killed by political rivals. “This is something that this country does not deserve – this country wants change and it voted for change,” he said.

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