The fighting pits youths from the nomadic Maasai against those of the farming Kikuyu tribe in the Mai Mahiu region, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) northwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

"At least 14 people have been killed since Friday in clashes over access of water between the two tribes," national police spokesman Jaspher Ombati told

Terrified villagers said irate youths wielded an assortment of crude weapons -- bows, arrows, machetes, spears, clubs and metal bars -- in the clashes that peaked on Saturday, mostly in areas near Mount Longonot.

The weekend fighting was sparked when Maasai herders invaded a farm owned by a Kikuyu local leader, who they said had diverted waters of the Ewaso Kedong river to irrigate his crops, causing a shortage downstream for their animals.

Hundreds of villagers are fleeing the area, with the Maasai heading further west towards Narok town and the Kikuyu towards the Mai Mahiu trading post. Dozens of homesteads were razed on Saturday, a day before police mounted patrols to the volatile region in a bid to restore peace, an AFP correspondent in the region said.

A road linking the Kenyan capital to the world-famous Maasai Mara game reserve has been blocked and tourists heading to safari harassed, witnesses said.

The Rift Valley's Nakuru District Commissioner John Waweru visited the area Sunday to preach peace to the two communities, which have been at loggerheads over access to water and pasture since 1960s.

"The government deplores the killing of its citizens in senseless wars. I urge the combattants to lay down their crude weapons and facilitate the return of peace," Waweru said in Mau Mahiu, where dozens of families have camped.

"The two communities should exercise maximum restraint as the investigations into the cause of the skirmishes continue," he added.

On several occasions, Maasai politicians have argued that Kenya's first president Jomo Kenyatta, himself a Kikuyu, illegally allocated parcels of land to Kikuyu farmers three decades ago, denying them grazing land.

Fighting last week between Maasai and Kipsigi tribesmen near the Maasai Mara game reserve displaced more than 2,000 villagers.

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