Tension hasd increased in Muhoroni, Kisumu county, after a man was found dead following suspected ethnic clashes.
George Ojwang's body was found inside a sugar cane plantation on Sunday morning.
Police, although stationed only 400 meters from where the body was discovered, declined to visit the scene for several hours until reinforcements arrived.
Officers, who later took the body to a mortuary, said the victim was hacked with a panga.
They said they launched investigations and that more of them were sent there to prevent revenge attacks.
The body of the 60-year-old man had three arrows in its back and severe head wounds, a Reuters witness in the village of Koguta said.
The motive and perpetrators for the killing were unclear, but it came a day after villagers from the Luo and Kalenjin communities armed themselves against each other. Locals warned the death of the Luo man could spark tit-for-tat violence.
"There's a desire for revenge by the Luo community, I'm trying to tell them to stay calm, but they are so bitter and angry," Gordon Onyango said.
The Luo community largely boycotted Thursday's presidential election, which was supposed to again pit opposition leader Raila Odinga against President Uhuru
Kenyatta.
In some parts of the country, such as Koguta in Kisumu county, the protests damaged relations with other communities who wanted to vote for
Uhuru.
That anger risks igniting ethnic violence, which killed around 1,200 people after a disputed 2007 presidential vote, but which has been largely absent from this election so far.
At least 51 people have been killed in political violence since August, but most deaths have occurred in clashes between protesters and police.
Police and county governors did not answer calls from Reuters, but Julius Genga, a county legislator, said by phone that he was driving to the scene.
"We want police to be deployed to try to restore calm because after the death of this man, tension is boiling up and we don't want it to escalate it to an unmanageable levels," he said.
The body was found after Kisumu Governor Anyang' Nyongo, Nandi's Stephen Sang and Kericho's Paul Chepkwony held joint meetings in Kericho to quell tensions.
Earlier today, Muhoroni deputy commissioner Kipkech Lotiatia said relative calm had been restored.
Also read:
Muhoroni residents have accused police of taking sides in quelling stock theft clashes at the borders of Kisumu and Kericho counties.
They said police have failed to take action against those who stole seven cows from Koguta village in Muhoroni and are covering up for the suspects.
They expressed their dissatisfaction on Saturday, armed with arrows, spear and pangas.
"Police should maintain law and order, not take sides with those who have stole have our animals,"
one said.
An unknown
number of suspects raided a grazing field in Muhoroni-Koru ward and stole the animals on Saturday afternoon.
The cattle rustlers said to be from Kericho attacked those who were grazing the animals and fled but the animals were recovered later.