Key Points:

An award-winning New Zealand photojournalist has been killed and his body dumped in a drainage ditch in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, it was reported today.

Trent Keegan, in his early 30s, was based in the west of Ireland and had spent the past decade travelling around the world while developing his business, the Irish Independent newspaper reported.

An internet site for freelance photographers said he had been working for a month in Africa on an assignment, and was unmarried, with a sister in Britain and parents living in New Zealand.

A police statement said that Keegan's body was found "in a drainage trench" near the main highway that runs through the capital but did not elaborate.

A spokesman in Nairobi told the Independent: "Initial observations showed that the body had visible injuries on the head.

"An inquest file has so far been opened."

The body was found with an Irish driver's licence in the name of Trent Keegan who was identified by a photograph on Keegan's business website, trentkeegan.com, which gives newspaper clients access to his photographs.

The Independent reported Keegan had been working in Ireland for about three years.

The internet website reported that Keegan had won several awards from the Irish Professional Photographers Association.

- NZPA