Rights watchdog asks Clinton to be tough on Kenya

Clinton visits Kenya and six other African nations next week to show that the continent is a priority for President Barack Obama's administration despite challenges from a financial crisis and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kenya's divided cabinet failed on Thursday to come up with mechanisms to set up a special tribunal to try masterminds of the clashes in which 1,300 people were killed and more then 300,000 uprooted.

Instead, President Mwai Kibaki said the government would embark on reforming the judiciary so that the planners of the worst violence in Kenya's post-independence history could be tried under the country's laws.

"We ask you to publicly state that the U.S. may consider the imposition of targeted sanctions including travel bans against those deemed most responsible for serious human rights violation," HRW said in an open letter to Clinton.