20110408
reuters

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Kenyan Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and two other top-ranking officials appeared at the International Criminal Court on Friday charged with inciting the violence that erupted after Kenya's 2007 disputed elections.

The country's Cabinet Secretary Francis Muthaura and former police chief Hussein Ali, currently head of Kenya's Postal Corporation, also appeared under summons as part of the war crime court's investigation into the violence.

"The process has now started and we expect justice at this stage. Nothing short of justice. When you are innocent there's nothing to worry about. So we have nothing to fear," Kenyatta told reporters outside the court after the brief hearing.

"Now we get a chance to see what evidence he (the prosecutor) has against us."

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is presenting two cases to the ICC, accusing a total of six government and business officials of instigating ethnic violence in which more than 1,200 people died after Kenya's 2007 elections.

The bloodshed between the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and the Party of National Unity damaged Kenya's reputation for stability in an otherwise turbulent region.

But asked whether the ICC case would hurt East Africa's biggest economy, Kenyatta said Kenya was a strong and stable country and neither the shilling currency nor the economy would suffer.

The Kenyan government has objected to the ICC proceedings and asked the judges to declare both cases inadmissible.