From the front door of his brother-in-law's house in nearby Eldoret, scene of some of the worst violence, Korir heard gunfire day and night. He saw homes burning and bodies lying in the street. He feared not only that he might not escape, but that he might not live through it.

"I've seen (the movie) 'Hotel Rwanda,' what happened in Rwanda," he said. "And it was exactly that. … People in the street with machetes, killing people from other tribes. It was difficult for me to imagine a country so peaceful got destroyed in a single day. My country, Kenya, really got destroyed in a single day."

U.S. envoy Jendayi Frazer said Wednesday the violence in Kenya's Rift Valley was "clear ethnic cleansing," aimed at chasing out President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu people.

Frazer said she did not consider the eruption of ethnic clashes in Kenya a genocide.

Because if it was considered genocide, they'd be obligate to intervene.