A WOMAN who has built a business to ethically trade and help poor people in Kenya has spoken of her fears for friends living under siege conditions amid inter-tribal violence.

Philippa and Tim Charlesworth are due to return to Kenya later this month but are anxiously assessing conditions in the country. More than 300 people have been killed and 70,000 driven from their homes after the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, which has fractured along tribal lines.

Mrs Charlesworth, of Colwall, near Malvern, has been in contact with the people of Kenya since 2002 and last year founded Jambo Jambo to import and sell Fair Trade clothes and craft items made by the people of Kibera, a poor area of the nation's capital Nairobi.

She was horrified to find Kibera is one of the areas most affected by the unrest, with people she knows enduring siege conditions.

"There are all sorts of people there, all from different tribes and normally they all get on," she said. "But now they're desperate. It's like they're living in siege conditions.

"My last e-mail from our friends says they're desperate for food because the supermarkets are shut, there's a curfew from 6pm to 6am, they can't leave their homes and the police have put up roadblocks." A rally against the re-election of President Kibaki was called off by opposition organisers after police used tear gas on protesters.

"It's a tragedy that this should happen," said Mrs Charlesworth. "Ever since I started going there, it's become very close to my heart."

Mr and Mrs Charlesworth have been building up a working relationship with their suppliers in Kenya and other African countries, helping them make products people in Europe, and especially the UK, want to buy.

In November, their efforts were hit when thieves raided a Hereford craft fair where they were exhibiting and stole their stock.