Conflict-weary Christians across the deeply religious Kenya filled churches on Sunday to pray that God would intervene to bring peace where the political leaders have failed.
Jane Riungu, leading her five children in their best clothes to a hilltop church outside Nairobi, said, "Our leaders have failed us. They have brought this catastrophe upon us. So now we are turning to the Almighty to save Kenya."
Kenya has been the scene of rioting and looting since President Mwai Kibaki's re-election last Sunday was furiously contested by opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Hundreds have been killed in the ensuing ethnic violence and clashes between protesters and police, which threaten to unravel stability in the entire east African region. Another 250,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
Protestant, Catholic and other churches were united in prayers and moments of silence for the dead on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of refugees have sought shelter in churches, police stations and grassy fields around the trouble hotspot Eldoret. Around 30 men, women and children - mainly of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe - were killed in a church in nearby Kiambaa when it was torched by a violent mob of local Kalenjins last Tuesday.
Some 9,000 refugees from the Eldoret environs have found shelter in the ethnically-mixed town's Sacred Heart Cathedral, despite the massacre at Kiambaa.
Catholic Bishop Cornelius Korir, a Kalenjin, said, "I've tried to tell people there's no difference between us. I look after all people, regardless of tribe."
South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu has been in the country since Wednesday, moving between the two opposition groups in an attempt to solve the disagreements between Kibaki and Odinga, and halt the violence on the streets.
