By David Ochami and Cyrus Ombati

As the Libyan regime totters on the brink of collapse, questions are emerging about its links with key people within the Kibaki administration amid reports that mercenaries from Nairobi are fighting on the side of besieged Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

And 80 Kenyans who have been stranded in Tripoli and other Libyan cities since the start of civilian revolt have now been evacuated to Cairo, Egypt on transit to Nairobi aboard a Kenya Airways plane. They are expcted in Nairobi on Sunday night.

A Member of Parliament has demanded an inquiry and full disclosure of Kenya’s public and secret deals between Gaddafi and the Kibaki administration, a day after the UN Security Council voted, unanimously, to have the International Criminal Court investigate the Libyan despot for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Over 1000 people are reported to have been killed mostly by Gaddadi forces in the 11-day protests.

Deputy Prime minister Musalia Mudavadi said at the weekend Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, who has visited Gaddadi early this month, "owes Kenyans an apology" for lobbying a tyrant "who is killing his people with bombs"

Reports indicate that there are some growing military links between the two nations and that the Libya and Sudanese governments funded some parties at recent by-elections and financed anti-ICC conferences in Nairobi in January and also coordinated the defense of Kenya’s ICC suspects at The Hague.

Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara wants an inquiry of "PNU bigwigs" involved in the signing of memorandum of understanding on June 6 2007 when President Kibaki led an Kenyan entourage to Gaddafi’s hometown in Sirte leading to the controversial sale of the former Grand Regency Hotel to Libya’s Laico Company.

"The deals need to come out in open so that we can know what to do and the way forward," he said.

Last month, businessman Kamlesh Pattin led a delegation of Kenyan elders to visit Gadaffi.

Incidentally China and Russia, two permanent members of the UN Security Council that Kenya has been counting on to defer ICC investigations on Ocampo six voted for the resolution, two weeks after Gaddafi wrote a letter pledging to support Kenya’s deferral bid.

And a defecting official from the Libyan regime repeated claims on Saturday night that Kenyan mercenaries are fighting on Gaddafi’s side.

The Sky News reported from eastern Libya that there were mercenaries from "East Africa" without identifying specific countries but Nouri al Masmari who has been chief of protocol for the Libyan government told Al Jazeera on Saturday night that the presence of Kenyan mercenaries in the North African country has been "confirmed".

Said Masmari as he urged the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to stem the airlift of "African mercenaries" into Tripoli and other Libyan cities.

"It was, officially confirmed by the Kenyan government that some mercenaries are being flown into Libya," he said

When defecting Libyan officials accused Kenya, Niger, Liberia and other African nations of supplying soldiers of fortune, Kenyan officials and Libya’s embassy in Nairobi denied any knowledge of these mercenaries.

The full extent of the alleged involvement of Kenyans in Libya has not been established although diplomatic sources have indicated that at least two retired military officers from the Infantry and Air Force are commanding foreign mercenaries in Libya.

However, the signing of the MoU and the commencement of the ICC investigation in Kenya and Sudan drew Kibaki and Gaddafi close.

On the June 2007, Kibaki led key ministers in signing lucrative deals that led to among other ventures the sale of Mobil Kenya to Libya’s Tamoil for Sh13 billion and the it was renamed Oilibya.

The MoU also guaranteed a Libya stake in the upgrade of the Kenya Pipeline, a 50 per cent holding in the Kenya Petroleum Refineries and ventures in information technology and the hospitality industry in Mombasa, Nairobi and Eldoret.