Bodies and debris lay in Kenyan streets yesterday as Western powers pressured President Mwai Kibaki to investigate a disputed poll that has triggered days of deadly riots killing around 150 people. With a death toll rising from overnight violence and more rioting expected, the United States and Britain pressed Kenya to probe suspected voting irregularities in an election that returned Kibaki for a second five-year term.

Enraged supporters of opposition challenger Raila Odinga clashed with police and looted stores owned by Kenyans belonging to Kibaki?s Kikuyu tribe, paralysing East Africa?s biggest economy as businesses shut and petrol pumps ran dry. Scores of heavily armed police patrolled the streets of Nairobi yetserday morning under orders from Kibaki to ?deal with troublemakers?.

Most deaths so far have come from police firing at protesters, witnesses say, prompting accusations that what is traditionally the region?s most stable nation had become a ?police state?.

The Red Cross said it had counted 120 deaths by Monday night but expected the toll to rise. A local newspaper put the figure at 164, while Reuters reporters estimated around 150. One aid-worker in the flashpoint western town of Kisumu said 100 bodies were lying in a mortuary there, all with gun wounds.

Odinga ? whose party unseated most of Kibaki?s cabinet and took a huge majority in concurrent parliamentary polls ? says the presidential vote was a stitch up. He had led in every opinion poll bar one during the campaign. ?They have robbed us of our victory and now they are shooting us. How can one man (Kibaki) cheat a whole nation? If a guerrilla war starts, I am ready to join in,? said Stanley Bwire, a Nairobi night watchman.

International observers, who initially hailed the poll as an example for the continent, expressed serious concerns about the vote-counting and abhorred the nationwide clashes that followed. The government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights called the electoral process ?heavily flawed and devoid of credibility?. The United States said disputes over the poll should be resolved through ?constitutional and legal remedies? and that it was working with all parties to avoid more violence.

?All sides should exercise and work for a solution that reflects the will of the Kenyan people,? added a spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who spoke to Kibaki and Odinga, urging them to work together.

The violence in the capital Nairobi, the Indian Ocean resort of Mombasa and many smaller towns put investment in the economy at risk and dented Kenya?s international image. Kenyans were aghast at seeing their country make world headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Leading local newspaper, the Daily Nation, said it was on ?the verge of a complete melt-down?. It added: ?Kenya, a nation of peace and civility, is now being regarded by the international community as a ?trouble-spot? and spoken of in the same breath as Pakistan ... Never since 1982 has there been so much uncertainty.?

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the bloodshed and urged security forces to show the utmost restraint. Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry into police killings. ?The government should ensure its security forces comply with international standards on the use of lethal force against demonstrators,? the rights group said.

Such was the turmoil that 300 people in eastern Kenya escaped into neighbouring Uganda, from where thousands fled across the border during decades of dictatorship and civil war. In a New Year message, Kibaki urged reconciliation.

Much of the fighting has pitted members of his Kikuyu ethnic group, Kenya?s largest and most economically dominant tribe, against Luo supporters of Odinga. As many people stayed at home in fear, supplies of food, fuel and water ran low. The government said it would not declare a state of emergency or any curfews. Odinga, who says he is Kenya?s elected leader, has called for a million supporters to gather for a rally in a central Nairobi park on Thursday. More bloodshed is feared.

Both sides have accused the other of rigging during the Dec. 27 poll, which passed off peacefully. Chief European Union monitor Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said the tallying process lacked credibility. Several members of Kenya?s electoral commission said they would call for a judicial review of reported problems, including missing paperwork, inflated figures and ballot-stuffing. ?We cannot remain silent,? said one, Jack Tumwa.

Tim COCKS

Andrew CAWTHORNE