“Victims are not witnesses. If you target a victim, you will not in anyway affect the prosecution case” says Mikel Delagrange of the Victims Participation and Reparations Unit at the International Criminal Court.

“You can target every victim in the country, but the prosecutors case still goes on because the prosecutor is not relying on these victims.”

Targeting victims could, of course, even strengthen ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo’s case against the four prominent Kenyans confirmed for trial on January 23. Or at least make his job easier.

The pre-trial freedom of the four accused — immediate former minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta, immediate former Head of the Civil Service Francis Muthaura, former agriculture minister William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sanga— depends on them behaving well and following court rules. Accountability starts now.

They have been warned by the court not to intimidate victims and witnesses, and not to indulge in hate speech.

But that’s little comfort to the thousands of victims in Kenya who have suffered in silence since the ill-fated election of December 2007.

Abandoned by the government and under varying degrees of political pressure to remain silent on the details, victims of the violence suddenly find themselves in an extraordinary position.

ICC becomes both the greatest threat and the greatest hope they have.

Victims are not witnesses, true. But they have come under similar pressure in a country where the manipulation or absence of information is a powerful political tool, particularly in the provinces. To date, victims have expected to put up, and shut up.

Like Samary, from Kapsoit, whose teenage son went missing on January 1, 2008.