Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto has pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Mr Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta are accused of orchestrating violence after elections in 2007, and will be tried separately at The Hague.
Mr Ruto becomes the first serving official to appear at the ICC.
The two trials are seen as a crucial test of the ICC's ability to prosecute political leaders.
At the scene
William Ruto appeared relaxed in court, sipping from a half-full glass of water and glancing at his wife and daughter seated in a supportive position, a few feet away, in the front row of the public gallery.
There were occasional tuts from the deputy president's colleagues seated around us, as the judge ran through a legal timeline of the case. Mr Ruto stood as the judge asked him to enter a plea to each of the charges.
He answered each of the three counts of murder, persecution and forcible transfer of people in turn, "not guilty, not guilty, not guilty". Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda began by accusing Mr Ruto of resorting to violence when his efforts at the ballot box failed, of stoking the flames of ethnic tensions and issuing the order to attack.
The deputy president watched and listened, smiling occasionally and shaking his head.
This is a politically controversial trial with a complex legal history, says the BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague.
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.
They formed an alliance for elections in March, saying they were an example of reconciliation.
Analysts say the ICC prosecutions bolstered their campaign as they portrayed it as foreign interference in Kenya's domestic affairs.
Mr Ruto watched and smiled during proceedings and pleaded not guilty to each of the three counts of murder, persecution and forcible transfer of people, our correspondent says.
Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Mr Ruto was a "powerful politician" who planned the crimes to "satisfy his thirst for power", AFP news agency reports.
"It is difficult to imagine the suffering or terror experienced by the men, women and children who were burnt alive, hacked to death or chased from their homes," she is quoted as saying.
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
- Some 1,200 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
A group of Kenyan MPs and other supporters welcomed Mr Ruto and Mr Sang as they arrived for the trial, AFP reports.
"We are here and now God will see us through. I did not contribute to the violence in Kenya, but peace," Mr Sang is quoted as saying.
In Kenya, many people are following the case closely and opinion is split with opposition supporters welcoming the trial and government supporters opposed to it, says the BBC's Caroline Karobia in the capital, Nairobi.
Some 1,200 people were killed and 600,000 forced from their homes in weeks of violence after the disputed December 2007 election.
More than 40,000 people are estimated to be still living in camps, which Mr Kenyatta last week promised to close by 20 September.
On Sunday, he gave cheques worth more than $4,500 (£3,000) per family so they could move out of camps and rebuild their lives.
Ex-UN chief Kofi Annan said, in an article in The New York Times, that the trials were not an assault on Kenya's sovereignty but the "first steps toward a sustainable peace that Kenyans want, deeply".
"Making clear that no one is above the law is essential to combat decades of the use of violence for political ends by Kenya's political elite," he wrote.
Mr Annan brokered the peace deal that brought an end to the brutal killings.
It included an agreement that those responsible for the violence must be held to account.
The Kenyan view
William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta have been successful in linking their personal legal problems with the national interest, in the Kenyan public imagination.
There are plenty who agreed with the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, when he said in May that the ICC is "hunting Africans". The notion that the court has a racist, neo-colonialist agenda is gaining currency.
But there are others who remember how the Kenyan parliament failed repeatedly to pass legislation that would allow the suspects to be tried at home. Many believe that, even with a reformed judiciary, the Kenyan courts do not have the teeth to put an entrenched political elite on trial.
Then there are the thousands of victims of the post-election violence, still living in camps some five years after they were chased from their homes. Many of these people see little connection between the proceedings at The Hague, and their own efforts to seek justice and redress.
A commission was set up to investigate the violence and it recommended that if efforts to establish special tribunals in Kenya failed, the matter should be sent to The Hague.
Kenya repeatedly failed to set up such tribunals and so the ICC indicted those it said bore the greatest responsibility for the violence.
The ICC on Monday said the two trials would not clash, after Mr Kenyatta warned that the constitution prevented the two men from being abroad at the same time.
The president is due to go on trial in November.
He also denies charges of fuelling violence.
The judges at The Hague have indicated the two cases could be heard alternately - in blocks of four weeks.
On Thursday, Kenya's parliament passed a motion calling for the country to withdraw from the ICC.
The court said the cases would continue, even if Kenya withdrew.
In May, the African Union (AU) accused the ICC of "hunting" Africans because of their race.
The ICC says it pursues justice impartially and will not allow perpetrators of violence to go unpunished.
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 34 in Africa.
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