"We visited the mountain site on Saturday, where smoke has been billowing from a cave, but as we were unable to determine whether this was the beginning of new volcanic activity, we decided to call in experts from Nairobi to probe it," Mount Elgon District Commissioner James ole Serian said on Monday.

"The specialists are expected to come in on Tuesday or Wednesday," Serian told AFP by telephone from his Mount Elgon district headquarters at the foot of Kenya's second highest mountain, which is 4,321 metres (14,176 feet) high.

It has been dormant for more than a century.

Serian said his security team have not yet decided whether evacuation of some 20,000 people living near the mountain would be necessary.

"We have not reached the stage of evacuating people living near the mountain, but we are warning the public to keep off the area, especially the cave spewing out smoke and gases that could be harmful to their health," Serian said.

"Everything is still under control and there is no need for evacuation," he added, pointing out that temperatures in the caves had become hotter than normal.

Other witnesses also told AFP on Monday that the volcano was emitting smoke accompanied by a pungent smell and that the floors of caves in the mountain had started to crack, temperatures risen and birds near the mountain had died.

"Those are signs of stress release from the brittle rocks in the crust of the earth," government geologist Shadrack Kimomo told AFP by telephone in Nairobi.

TERRA.WIRE