By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council should do something about the crisis in Kenya, since its post-election turmoil threatens to destabilize the entire region, Kenyan civil society activists said on Friday.

About 700 people have died in violence since President Mwai Kibaki was re-elected in a disputed Dec. 27 election which observers say was flawed and opposition leader Raila Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement say was rigged.

Maina Kiai, head of the Kenyan government's human rights watchdog, told reporters the crisis could destabilize Uganda, Somalia, southern Sudan and other countries in the region.

"Even discussion of this issue at the Security Council would have a very powerful message," he told a news conference organized by the Open Society Institute, a civil society foundation established by investor George Soros.

The 15-nation Security Council is the U.N. body charged with maintaining international peace and security.

Kiai said he planned to meet South Africa's U.N. delegation during his visit to New York to impress upon them the need to bring the issue of Kenya to the council.

Muthoni Wanyeki, head of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, a non-governmental civil society organization, said she and Kiai wanted an independent investigation of the election.

Kiai said such an audit was necessary because Kenyans have too little confidence in their country's judiciary to make an impartial ruling.

In addition to the deaths, the turmoil has left 250,000 people homeless and damaged one of Africa's most promising economies.

Hopes for a solution had grown on Thursday after former U.N. chief Kofi Annan brought Odinga and Kibaki together for their first discussions on how to end the standoff. But those hopes were dashed when the opposition grew angry over Kibaki calling himself Kenya's "duly-elected" leader.

The United Nations should put more pressure on the two sides to reach a settlement, Kiai said.

Both activists said Kenya needed far-reaching reforms to ensure future elections are fair.

They also criticized Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental rights watchdog based in New York, for singling out some opposition party officials for helping organize what the group called "ethnic-based violence" in Kenya's Rift Valley.

Kiai did not question the allegations. But he said the government had also organized militia violence -- which was not mentioned in a statement issued by Human Rights Watch on Thursday. He said he had brought this up with the watchdog.

Kiai also urged the United States to issue travel bans on specific Kenyan government and opposition "hardliners." He did not name any of the people he would like to see blacklisted. (Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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