Nairobi — The Hague has been asked to speed up the trial of suspects linked to post-election violence.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights asked Pre-Trial Chambers of the International Criminal Court to authorise chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to start investigations as soon as possible.

"They (Pre-Trial Chamber) should make the authorisation in the next two or three weeks preferably before the end of January," the commission vice chairman Omar Hassan said on Thursday in a press statement.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo had requested the Pre-Trial Chamber to make a decision on when he should proceed with investigations.

The Chamber is supposed to determine whether crimes committed after the 2007 general elections met the ICC threshold.

"There is anxiety with respect to the intervention of the ICC and it is the desire of most Kenyans that this matter be dispensed with expeditiously and preferably before the next General Election," said Mr Hassan.

As he spoke, potential witnesses are worried over death threats some of them have received.

A witness who gave evidence during the Justice Philip Waki commission sittings received a letter which turned out to be a death threat message with Sh3,000 enclosed.

According to the victim, the letter was delivered by his wife who works in a local sugarcane processing plant in Western province, on Tuesday.

Two smartly dressed men stopped the victim's wife as she left work and gave her the letter.

"They knew my wife. They requested my wife to deliver the mail, saying they had been looking for me for many days. They then left in a four-wheel drive vehicle," said the victim, who cannot be named for security reasons.

The message read: "Tafadhali mke wa Ken. Huu ndio mchango wetu ambao tumekuchangia ukusaidie kununulia bwana wako geneza (Please, Ken's wife. This is our donation to help you purchase a coffin for your husband).