To kenyanske menneskerettighedsaktivister dræbt

A senior UN official called Friday for an independent probe into the assassination of two Kenyan rights activists behind protests by a banned criminal gang.

"It is extremely troubling when those working to defend human rights in Kenya can be assassinated in broad daylight," Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said in a statement.

Oscar Kamau Kingara, head of the Oscar Foundation rights group, as well as the organisation's advocacy director John Paul Oulu were gunned down Thursday after protests by members of the Mungiki group.

Once a quasi-religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced traditional rituals, the Mungiki were banned in 2002 after the authorities said they had evolved into a powerful crime ring with political links.

Alston had recently released a report charging that the Kenyan security services had carried out systematic extrajudicial killings auring their crackdown against the Mungiki, mainly in 2007.

The UN official recommended the sacking of Kenya's police chief and attorney general and Thursday's demonstrations were organised to demand Alston's findings be implemented.

"It is imperative, if the Kenya police are to be exonerated, for an independent team called from somewhere like Scotland Yard or the South African police to investigate," Alston said.

Alston, who was invited by the Kenyan government to probe extrajudicial killings last month, said he had met the two men gunned down on Thursday during his mission.

In 2007, the Oscar Foundation published a report entitled "Licence to Kill: Extrajudicial killings and police brutality in Kenya" that detailed police killings in the country.