KEY POINTS:
An award-winning New Zealand photojournalist has been found dead with suspicious head injuries in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
The body of Trent Keegan, 33, was discovered in a drainage ditch.
His mother, Trish Keegan, who lives in New Plymouth, told the Herald last night that she had been contacted by "a friend of a friend of a friend" who had seen something on the internet.
But she had not had any official confirmation of what had happened and was still waiting for news about her son's fate.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said she had been contacted at 2am yesterday by international reporters about the death.
Last night, ministry staff were still working with the NZ High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa, to establish whether the dead man was Mr Keegan. The spokeswoman said the ministry had been in contact with Mr Keegan's family.
A statement from the Kenyan police said Mr Keegan's body was found "in a drainage trench" near the main highway that runs through the capital. A spokesman in Nairobi told the London Independent: "Initial observations showed that the body had injuries on the head. An inquest file has been opened."
The body was found with an Irish driver's licence in the name of Trent Keegan.
Mr Keegan spent the past decade travelling the world as a photojournalist and had been based for the past three years in the west of Ireland working as a freelancer.
An internet site for freelance photographers said he had been working for a month in Africa on an assignment, and was not married.
Mr Keegan won several awards from the Irish Professional Photographers Association.
In September last year, retired Aucklander Julian Nathan was brutally slain in Nairobi. The 76-year-old grandfather was beaten to death in the apartment complex where he was staying with two colleagues from his son's avocado oil company, Olivado.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA
