* ICC prosecutor declines to name official
* Investors, donors, local markets watching case closely
By James Macharia
NAIROBI, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A prominent Kenyan is ready to face the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague if named as a suspect in post-election violence, newspapers reported on Thursday, a sign the court is closing in on organisers of the violence.
"The person wrote to us a couple of weeks ago indicating that he was ready to surrender to the court if cited as a suspect," the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo was quoted as saying in the Daily Nation.
An ICC spokeswoman confirmed the comments.
The prosecutor declined to name the person, but said the ICC had reams of evidence on the deadly clashes that took place after a 2007 general election. Many Kenyans are hopeful arrests and convictions will act as a deterrent against a repeat of violence at the next elections due in 2012. [ID:nLDE68L1FU]
About 1,300 people were killed and more than 300,000 displaced by violence when opposition candidate Raila Odinga accused the incumbent Mwai Kibaki of stealing the election.
A powersharing deal brokered by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in late February 2008 stopped the bloodshed and created Kenya's first coalition government, with Odinga in the post of prime minister.
Foreign investors, donors and local markets are closely watching the issue in east Africa's biggest economy.
Analysts say arrest warrants against cabinet ministers could widen rifts in the coalition government of President Kibaki and trigger unrest among the suspoects' communities.
"I think the penny has dropped. Those who thought it would take a long time to try the cases are running scared," a Nairobi-based lawyer who declined to be named said.
"It is strategic to offer yourself up because one avoids the trouble of being arrested and stands a chance of being granted bail while their case is being heard rather than being jailed."
Moreno-Ocampo said he aimed to complete confirmation hearings by the end of 2011, with trials to start in 2012.
"We will not prosecute those who directly killed or raped people, but those who organised and provided orders," the chief prosecutor was quoted as saying.
LEADERSHIP CREDENTIALS AT STAKE
Local media say three cabinet ministers have been asked to give evidence on the clashes by the ICC. [ID:nLDE6941GH]
The state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights named senior cabinet ministers as architects of the violence including Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, and Higher Education Minister William Ruto, a Kalenjin. [ID:nLDE6941GH]
Kenyatta told Reuters on Saturday that neither he nor his country had anything to fear from pending ICC arrest warrants.
Some analysts said arrest warrants issued by the ICC against sitting cabinet ministers could prove hard to enforce.
"Even if the warrants are not executed, it would cripple their leadership credentials. It will be bad enough, they will have been named and shamed," columnist Okech Kendo said.
Last March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in the first indictment against a sitting head of state for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Kenya did not arrest Bashir when he visited Kenya in August, drawing criticism from around the world. [ID:nLDE67S05M]
(Editing by David Clarke)
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