Nairobi — Some 396 victims of the 2007 election violence have formally given information to The Hague.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) also revealed that it is protecting an unspecified number of witnesses.
Not all witnesses will testify against the perpetrators of the chaos, the registrar of the court, Ms Silvana Arbia, said.
"We are already protecting witnesses and we will never ask a witness to testify if this puts them at risk," said Ms Arbia.
Ms Arbia is in the country to prepare the ground for the setting up of the local operations of the court.
She said 79 victim applications have been made by communities and 320 by individuals.
The Hague is pitching tent in Kenya and will assess the risk involved in the victims taking part in the trials.
She said the large number of submissions was difficult to manage and added that the court will have to balance its obligations and the expectations of victims.
Victims are required to file applications, explaining why they should be allowed to take part in the proceedings. This can be done before the Pre-Trial Chamber when the prosecutor requests for authorisation to investigate.
Above all, the individuals who want to be represented before the ICC are required to adduce sufficient evidence to prove that they are victims of crime which come under the competence of the court.
And depending on the evidence, the court can either decide to accept the application for representation or dismiss it.
And in the event the victims who need representation are not financially able to hire lawyers, the ICC will pay for their legal representation.
This only happens if the victim asks for financial aid from the court.
The ICC registrar also welcomed the Witness Protection Act which seeks to establish an agency to protect witnesses.
She, however, denied claims that the ICC has already identified individuals to face trial for the death of 1,133 people and the displacement of 650,00 others in the violence that followed the 2007 presidential polls.
Ms Arbia said investigations by prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo were still in the initial stages. She added that the Pre-Trial Chamber II would only issue arrest warrants once it was satisfied with the evidence collected by the prosecutor.
"The prosecutor is still doing his investigations and we do not know when and why the warrant of arrests will be issued," she said.Ms Arbia pointed out that the lack of an arrest mechanism was one of the challenges facing the court.
"The court does not have the mechanism for arrests thus the need for the ICC to seek cooperation with the state parties. I am confident that the Kenyan government will grant us the necessary cooperation," said Ms Arbia.
The ICC official said she was in the country to seek an agreement with the government to ensure that the court's staff who will be in the country will operate "freely and safely".
"We want to ensure that our officers will enjoy this status in terms of privileges and immunity," said Ms Arbia.
On April 1, the court gave the prosecutor the go-ahead to conduct investigations over the post-poll chaos. When he visited the country in May, he said he would return later before seeking warrants from the court in December.
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I have an important message for the ICC. That Kenyans want to move on. We do not want to live in the past. The promulgation of the new constitution without violence and with free and open "Yes" and "No" campaigns is a clear indicator that Kenyans have turned the page. What the ICC is doing in Kenya and in Sudan is to turn the focus to the past and the result of this will be to keep the wounds of this past fresh and unhealed.
The main reason that there was the 2007 violence in Kenya was that the elections were rigged. The solution is; Do not rig elections again. That is what Kenyans are interested in today. The new constitution is part of it. Remove the loopholes that were exploited to facilitate rigging but more importantly, Kenyan leaders to learn from the past to avoid rigging on going. It does not matter how many people ICC puts behind bars. As long as the leaders continue to cheat their way into leadership, mob action will continue to react accordingly. There does not have to be someone to tell them to react for them to react. A good set of rules, good constitution, good governance and open acceptance of the will of the people - like was the case with the referendum - is what Kenyans are counting on for peace and stability. Not to rig so as to focus on the consequences of rigging by blaming the aggrieved.
I do not condone the violence that erupted in 2008 following the rigging. But I believe the best solution lies with tackling the circumstances that facilitated the rigging. All the dead on both sides of the political spectrum would be alive today if the elections were not manipulated.
I commend Kofi Annan for a job well done and the new dawn on Kenyan leadership to allow free and fair referendum. We now need unity of purpose to implement the constitution. It's counterproductive for the ICC to be summoning these people to seem keen to burry the hatchet to keep reminding them that the hatchet is not burrows but live. Wait until accusations of victimization and selective prosecution start being voiced and felt. That is when the extinguished fire will be lit again.