Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto
has left for The Hague to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC)
on Tuesday.
High-ranking government officials saw off Mr Ruto at the airport in Nairobi.
Mr Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta have been charged with crimes against humanity, which they deny.
On Sunday, Mr Kenyatta said the ICC must stagger their trials as the constitution did not allow the two men to be out of Kenya at the same time.
“Start Quote
End Quote Uhuru Kenyatta Kenya's presidentWe will work with ICC, and we have always promised to do this”
Mr Kenyatta is due to go on trial in November.
'Name and shame'
Radio boss Joshua arap Sang has also been charged with inciting and helping coordinate attacks.
He will be tried alongside Mr Ruto, and is already at The Hague, AFP news agency reports.
He too denies the charges.
The charges against the three stem from violence that broke out after disputed elections in 2007, in which more than 1,000 people were killed and 600,000 forced from their homes.
More than 8,000 families are still to be resettled after being displaced by the conflict, the government says.
Kenya's violent elections
- Then-President Mwai Kibaki declared the winner of December 2007 elections - Raila Odinga cries foul
- Opposition protests lead to clashes with police and degenerate into ethnic violence across the country
- More than 1,000 killed and 600,000 flee homes
- Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta in Kibaki camp; accused of orchestrating violence against ethnic groups seen as pro-Odinga
- Incumbent Deputy President William Ruto in Odinga camp; accused of targeting pro-Kibaki communities
- Power-sharing deal signed in April 2008 after mediation by ex-UN chief Kofi Annan
- Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto form alliance and win March 2013 election
- Mr Ruto's trial to start on 10 September; Mr Kenyatta's due in November
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto were on opposite sides during
the 2007 election and are accused of orchestrating attacks on members of each
other's ethnic groups but formed an alliance for elections in March this
year.
Analysts say the ICC prosecutions bolstered their campaign as they portrayed it as foreign interference in Kenya's domestic affairs.
On Saturday, Mr Kenyatta issued cheques worth more than $4,500 (£3,000) to families still living in a camp for displaced people in Rift Valley, one of the areas worst affected by the violence.
He and Mr Ruto prayed together at a church on Sunday.
"We will work with [the] ICC, and we have always promised to do this," Mr Kenyatta told a rally of supporters.
"But it must understand that Kenya has a constitution, and Ruto and myself won't be away at the same time."
The president said the charges were "false and will be dismissed".
"The plotters of this scheme will be named and shamed. The victory won't be Ruto's, Sang's or mine, but for Kenya," he said to cheering crowds.
As government ministers and MPs saw him off at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi on Monday, Mr Ruto said: "Gentlemen, take care of this great nation," the local Daily Nation newspaper reports.
On Thursday, Kenya's parliament passed a motion calling for Kenya to withdraw from the ICC.
The court said the cases would continue, even if Kenya withdrew.
In May, the African Union accused the ICC of "hunting" Africans because of their race.
The ICC strongly denies this, saying it is fighting for the rights of the African victims of atrocities.
The ICC was set up in 2002 to deal with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
The court has been ratified by 122 countries, including
source: BBC
