ICC prosecutor to request Kenya investigation

* Moreno-Ocampo will request investigation be opened

* Kenyan ministers could face Hague court

* Leaders pledge to support ICC, establish local mechanism

(Adds more analyst comment, currency)

By David Clarke

NAIROBI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor will request an investigation into suspected crimes against humanity committed during Kenya's post-election violence in 2008.

The decision by Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced during a visit to Kenya on Thursday is the start of a process that could end with influential cabinet ministers from the east African country facing The Hague court.

Moreno-Ocampo met President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the prosecutor's statement means the Kenyan leaders decided against referring the case themselves to the Hague court.

Moreno-Ocampo told a news conference he would ask ICC pre-trial judges in December to let him start an investigation, the route he has to follow if a government chooses not to refer suspected crimes committed in its country to the court.

Ethnic clashes after a disputed presidential election killed at least 1,300 people and uprooted more than 300,000, shattering Kenya's image as a stable, regional economic powerhouse.

"I consider the crimes committed in Kenya were crimes against humanity, therefore the gravity is there. So therefore I should proceed," Moreno-Ocampo told a joint news conference with Kibaki and Odinga in the capital Nairobi.

The 2002 Rome Treaty established the ICC, the world's first permanent court set up to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and other major human rights violations.

Kenya had promised to deal with the masterminds. But numerous attempts to kick-start the process have floundered and many Kenyans are sceptical powerful individuals will be arrested and charged because of widespread impunity among politicians.

"The hour of reckoning had to come at some point," said Ken Ouko, a sociologist at the University of Nairobi. "That now sort of nullifies the political merry-go-round we have been hearing."

Kenya's shilling KES= remained firm against the dollar after the meeting. Traders said there had been fears Kenya might try and block an ICC investigation but the leaders' pledges of support soothed market worries.



KENYA TO COOPERATE

During a visit to Kenya in October, crisis mediator Kofi Annan warned that unless the architects of the killings were brought to book, there was a serious risk violence would erupt again at the next presidential election in 2012.

Annan handed over a list of the main suspects to Moreno-Ocampo in July. Political sources say it names cabinet ministers, members of parliament and businessmen. Moreno-Ocampo now plans to investigate some of them.

"His coming shows that the process is progressing to the next level. We are in the global justice system and there is no going back," said Robert Shaw, a Nairobi-based economist and political analyst.

"This goes beyond carting a few people off to The Hague. It might have a cathartic influence on the political system ... sort of like lancing a boil," he said.

Kibaki and Odinga said in a joint statement that Kenya remained committed to cooperating with the ICC and to setting up a local judicial mechanism to prosecute violence suspects.

"We are ready to work with his court so that we don't see a repeat of what we saw last year," Odinga said.

The Standard newspaper said on Wednesday that Kibaki and Odinga agreed after meetings to let Moreno-Ocampo pursue the second option -- to cushion themselves from any backlash.

The problem for Kenya's leaders is that they were rivals for the presidency. The killing started after the electoral commission declared Kibaki the winner, and Odinga cried foul.

If they were seen to be the ones giving up former party allies accused of mobilising ethnic militias, the coalition could fall apart and tribal violence could flare up again.

"The problem is that the people who funded the turmoil are in power now. I'd rather we get an independent body to oversee this," said Bernard Gitau, 50, who is living in a camp in the Rift Valley housing 500 families uprooted by the violence. (Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri and Wangui Kanina in Nairobi and Ben Makori in Nakuru; Editing by Giles Elgood and Mark Trevelyan)