By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

NAIROBI, July 11 (Reuters) - Crime and violence are at crisis levels in Kenya in the build-up to elections, as gangs terrorise the population and "trigger happy" police respond with impunity, human rights groups said on Wednesday.

The Kenya Human Rights Network said 300 criminals, police officers, victims of land clashes and suspected members of a banned sect were killed in the last six months alone.

"The security and human rights situation has reached a crisis proportion. Our laws have been neglected. We have reached a severe national security crisis," Network member Cyprian Nyamwamu said after the group presented a petition to the government's human rights body.

Kenya, which has suffered cyclical violence each election year since 1992 when it became a multi-party democracy, is expected to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in December.

"There's a clear link between what's going on and the elections," said Stephen Musau, of the Release Political Prisoners group, a coalition member. "Those fearing defeat are connected in one way or another to the rise in violence."

Central Kenya is being terrorised by a religious-turned-criminal terror gang known as Mungiki that has killed scores and beheaded some of its victims. Scores more people have died in the western Mount Elgon area.

There has also been conflict in Trans Mara and Meru regions and police have arrested members of militia near the coast.

The network, which groups some 50 civil society bodies, said women had been raped, farms abandoned and businesses closed as a result of the mayhem -- but criticised the reaction of the police as "trigger happy" and unprofessional.

"Clearly, something is wrong in this country. The impunity that is happening ... they cannot get away with it," said Maina Kiai, executive director of the government's Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

Police have not been spared the violence. In June alone -- which was the bloodiest month according to the human rights bodies -- 11 officers were murdered, mainly by Mungiki.

"That's a serious issue for all of us. They are trained and they are armed. Once they are killed as easily as they seem to be killed, what does that mean for the rest of us with no training," Kiai said, adding that the deaths were regrettable.

At least 26 people are missing after a police crackdown on the Mungiki, the network said. Police killed some 22 people in a Nairobi slum in a two day operation against Mungiki in June.

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