NAIROBI – A convoy of food trucks left the Kenyan port of Mombasa, in a new effort to tackle a humanitarian crisis triggered by disputed elections.

The trucks, carrying 666 tonnes of food and vegetable oil, were bound for Nairobi and Eldoret, where people displaced by the violence are gathered.

No food has moved in Kenya since unrest broke out after elections last month which the opposition says were rigged.

The opposition rejected a subsequent offer of a national unity government.

The violence, much of it blamed on ethnic tensions, has killed 350 people and shocked a nation previously seen as one of the most stable in Africa.

The first group of 20 food trucks are carrying enough supplies to feed 35,000 people for a month.

The UN says 250,000 people have been made homeless by the violence. Many have been sleeping in the open at public parks, police stations, or churches.

They have few belongings and little or no money.

The convoy also offers hope to neighbouring countries, for which Mombasa is also a key port and distribution hub.

British charity Merlin has warned of a looming health crisis in Kenya.