Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta to appear at ICC in the Hague
Uhuru Kenyatta is also finance minister and the son of Kenya's founding presidentKenya's Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and two others are due at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accused of links to 2007-8 post-election violence.
The three are seen as allies of President Mwai Kibaki.
Three backers of Mr Kibaki's rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, appeared on Thursday.
All six are accused of crimes against humanity during the violence in which some 1,000 people died.
Some 500,000 people were driven from their homes, 100,000 of whom still remain in camps.
The violence broke out after supporters of President Kibaki were accused of trying to rig the presidential election in December 2007.
It ended when Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga agreed to share power, with Mr Odinga becoming prime minister.
On Thursday, ICC judges said a hearing would be held in early September to decide whether the men would stand trial. If convicted, they could face life imprisonment.
All six deny wrongdoing.
'Only possible in movie'Alongside Mr Kenyatta, who is also fiance minister and the son of Kenya's founding president, secretary to the cabinet Francis Kirimi Muthaura and former police chief Mohammed Hussein Ali are expected to hear charges of murder, deportation, persecutions and rape.
On Thursday, former Higher Education Minister William Ruto, former Minister for Industrialisation Henry Kosgey and radio executive Joshua Arap Sang appeared in court for the preliminary hearing.
They have not been formally charged but are accused of crimes including murder, deportation, persecutions and torture.
Mr Ruto told the court the allegations "made here sound to me like they can only be possible in a movie". He added: "For an innocent man like me to be dragged here really is a matter that puzzles me."
Kenya had asked the ICC for a deferral, and says it is now able to investigate and prosecute these cases itself.
Some 40 Kenyan MPs gathered outside the court in The Hague to provide moral support for the accused on Thursday.
"We feel this is not the right way to go. We can manage our own affairs," said one lawmaker, Mohamud Ali. "Yes, we had our problems. We were down, but now we are up."
Both Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto are seen as likely candidates to stand in the 2012 presidential elections, but any criminal charges could effectively end their political ambitions.
Mr Ali suggested that the court cases could be seen "as a way of trying to influence the outcome of 2012".
The ICC alleges that a criminal plan was put in place in the Rift Valley for supporters of President Kibaki to be attacked after the election.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has said that in retaliation, police were given the green light to use excessive force and a vigilante group was organised to attack civilians.
The violence brought the country to the brink of civil war, with long-standing ethnic and economic rivalries ignited by political divisions.
One of the worst incidents saw a church where about 100 people had sought sanctuary set on fire, killing dozens inside.
The violence ended after former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan brokered a peace deal between the two presidential rivals. As part of the deal, it was agreed that perpetrators would face justice in Kenya or at the ICC in The Hague.
The organisation Human Rights Watch says this appearance of the six Kenyans in The Hague is an important test of their co-operation with the ICC.
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