US Bans Kenyan Politicians Accused of Inciting Violence

The United States has imposed travel bans on 10 Kenyan politicians because of their alleged role in post-election violence.

The move coincides with the beginning of a three-week inquiry by a UN team into claims of human rights violations.

The visa restrictions will apply to unnamed members of Mwai Kibaki's government and the opposition parties.

The US embassy spokesman, TJ Dowling, said: "We don't give visas to criminals. Inciting violence is a criminal act."

Both parties have accused each other of orchestrating the violence since the election on December 27, which the opposition and international observers claim was rigged in Kibaki's favor.

Last week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said it had evidence that officials from Raila Odinga's opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement, had organized tribal attacks. Earlier last month, it expressed alarm about a police shoot-to-kill policy against anti-Kibaki protesters.

More that 1,000 people have been killed and about 300,000 have been forced from their homes since the election.

A UN fact-finding mission arrived in Kenya yesterday to investigate the causes of the violence.

They arrived as the UN security council issued a statement deploring the violence in Kenya and urged political leaders to resolve the crisis. The council also gave its backing to the mediation mission led by the former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

Kenya's information minister, Samuel Poghisio, today claimed the violence was isolated and decreasing.

"What's going on in Kenya is an isolated case of some politically instigated violence. If you put it in perspective, 80% of Kenya's land mass is not experiencing violence. There are many people going about business as normal," he told Reuters.

But reports of bloodshed in western Kenya continue to emerge.

Two teachers were killed on Tuesday when police fired shots at a crowd of hundreds of residents who had barricaded the gates of the police station in Litein, 145 miles (233km) west of Nairobi.

Yesterday, in a nearby forest, police retrieved 18 bodies with gunshot wounds.