By Wangui Kanina
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United States has imposed travelbans on 10 Kenyans suspected of being behind ethnic violencethat has convulsed the country since President Mwai Kibaki'sdisputed re-election, officials said on Thursday.
The move came as pressure mounted on Kenya's feudingparties to resolve a crisis triggered by the December 27 pollsthat has killed more than 1,000 people and uprooted some300,000 others.
The violence has shattered Kenya's image of stability,horrifying locals, neighbouring states and world powers alike.
U.S. Embassy officials in Nairobi said five of those bannedwere politicians while the rest were prominent business people,but declined to give further details.
Western nations have used such sanctions in the pastagainst Kenyan corruption suspects, including high-levelpoliticians.
"There is a precedent for even a head of state and theirfamilies to face bans," one Western diplomat said, referring toa European ban on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
"The threat of the ban is more effective then the banitself," the diplomat added, saying that several countries wereconsidering taking such measures against Kenyan suspects.
Canada's envoy in Kenya has publicly threatened to banpoliticians guilty of stoking tribal violence, and diplomaticsources say Britain may do likewise.
Kenya has taken its own steps against a former Britishenvoy to Nairobi, Edward Clay, banning him from visiting afterhe clashed with Justice Minister Martha Karua during a TVinterview last month. Clay is vocal critic of corruption inKenya.
TALKS
Former U.N. boss Kofi Annan is leading internationalmediation efforts at a hotel in Nairobi where officials fromboth parties met on Thursday for more talks.
Having agreed on principles to stem violence and helprefugees, negotiators are now stuck on the original bone ofcontention -- who won the December vote.
Annan denied media reports on Thursday that his suite inthe hotel had been bugged. "That's news to me," he said.
U.N. security staff were sweeping Annan's accommodationregularly, a spokesman said.
Foreign ministers of the regional bloc IGAD are also intown to meet Annan, while leaders of another regional economicbloc, the East African Community, were due to arrive on Friday.
The opposition, which accuses Kibaki's team of rigging thevote, had threatened to hold more street protests over themeetings. They say Kibaki is seeking to legitimise his position"through the back door" by playing host.
Kibaki's aides say their man won the vote fairly, and theelection board declared him winner on December 30.
Beyond the ballot, the crisis has laid bare divisions overland, wealth and power that date from colonial rule and havesince been stoked by politicians, particularly at electiontime.
The European Union's aid chief Louis Michel was also inNairobi on Thursday. He met Annan and was due to meet Kibakiand opposition leader Raila Odinga later.
Also expected in Kenya on Friday for a three-day visit isthe U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs andEmergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes.
Highlighting the impact of more than a month of unrest, anaid agency warned on Thursday that nearly a quarter of thecountry's maize crop is thought to have been left unharvestedas farmers fled their fields.
CARE International said maize prices had shot up by around50 percent in Nairobi and by up to 300 percent in slums in thewestern town of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold.
On Thursday police said they would charge one of theirofficers with murder after he was filmed shooting dead twoyoung protesters in Kisumu last month in what rights groups andthe opposition slammed as extrajudicial killings.
(For special coverage from Reuters on Kenya's crisis see:http ://africa.reuters.com/elections/kenya/)
(Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri, Daniel Wallis,Bryson Hull)
(Writing by Daniel Wallis, editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
