Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2012-07-25 12:26:00 Read 2188 Times

Bungoma Lawyers and advocates in a past demo where they appealed to the Chief Justice to post to the region a new judge to help in easing the workload. [PHOTO | West Fm | File]

A year after a promised Judicial Reforms by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga in his appointment, all that can be seen is that he had an agenda but the agenda was not well implemented.

However, according to the CJ, the reform journey has not been easy. “I have decided to make it clear to Kenyans that a transformative judiciary will take more than a decade to be realized. I have not promised what I cannot deliver; I have told them of the challenges. I have two blueprints that will guide my objective of building firm and permanent cornerstones and foundations for a transformative judiciary. I have given Kenyans the basis for judging me.”

Some of the challenges that the judiciary has faced include: clearing a backlog of proceedings to ensure expeditious disposal of cases and administration of justice, the issue of computerization — electronic justice. It involves ensuring all documents are electronic, issues of capacity, setting up of the Judiciary Training Institute (JTI), amongst many others.

To achieve this end, the Judiciary has taken important strides towards the realization of the reform agenda as necessitated by the provisions and aspirations of the new Constitution.

A number of initiatives have begun, including important staffing decisions that have seen the swearing-in of the country’s first set of Supreme Court Justices, the appointment of 28 new High Court judges and the appointment of the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board.

In June, the CJ unveiled a five year transformation frame work for the Judiciary aimed at improving service delivery. “It is not a document we are unveiling, but rather the beginning of a new way of life for this great institution – one that is conscious and committed to delivering on its constitutional mission.  The Judiciary must recapture public imagination, not through its outdated aristocratic poise and rituals, but rather through the rigour of its jurisprudence,” said Mutunga during the launch of the Blue print.

According to the document, Judiciary will remove barriers to access to justice and ensure that it remains open and available to all who seek its assistance.

To achieve this, the document proposes construction of more courts as well increase the number of mobile courts.

The blueprint further recommends putting up of a model courthouse and establishment of an asset recovery and registration mechanism. The Judiciary will also establish an infrastructure inspectorate department that will oversee the massive infrastructural development that it plans to undertake in the next ten years.

This has seen the deployment of legal researchers to assist the Supreme Court Judges, Court of Appeal and high Courts in research to improve the quality of decisions.

Last year 19th October, when he marked his 120th day in office, the CJ said, “The hiring of 129 researchers, whose positions have only recently been advertised, will ensure that each and every judge has a research assistant. We shall spare no effort or resource to ensure that judicial officers deliver quality justice in an efficient and timely manner.”

The impact of Judicial Reforms are yet to be felt in all parts of the country except a few places like Machakos and Eldoret where the pilot reform ideas were carried out.Bungoma County has not been left out though with a modern court being set up in Sirisia, despite the raised issue of lack of enough judges to curb congestion of law suits in the region.

Mr. John Makali a practicing lawyer in the area complimented the envisioned reforms that he said if followed to the latter would bring forth a new dawn in the judicial systems of the land.

Makali revealed that there had been no improvements in the physical infrastructure of the courts arguing that Bungoma court was still faced with shortage of courtrooms that left most advocates displaced to carry out their profession under trees.

The Chief Justice Willy Mutunga with the 109 new Magistrates who were inducted to take up office at the Judiciary in line with the judicial reforms. [PHOTO | West Fm]

He said the structures in the courtrooms were still the same, similarly the outdated manual filling system in most courts in the region.

“The judicial reforms are yet to kick off as the structures in court rooms have remained the same, we still find files tired with strings on shelves at the registry offices a sign that the forms promised digital filling is yet to be implemented,” said Mr.Makali.

He said installation of new technology to modernize the courts so as to expedite effective service delivery was far from coming to reality basing on the fact that it’s dependent on the finance Ministry’s allocation of funds that has not yet been done.

He said that the biggest let down in the judicial system is the uncoordinated ways of implementing the reforms through non-existent intersectional coordination in the judicial organ.

“Information Communication Technology, ICT is yet to be incorporated in the courts since the funding towards its installation is yet to be released by the Ministry for Finance,” said Mr.Makali.

He said that the biggest let down in the judicial system is the uncoordinated ways of implementing the reforms through non-existent intersectional coordination in the judicial organ.

The Webuye Law Court.

The Principal Magistrate at the Webuye Law Courts Mr.Enock Cherono explained that Rapid Results Initiative is yet to be felt as cases still take a long time to be ruled out and even the already existent backlog of cases that had stayed for years are yet to be cleared.

He said the commonly handled cases at the Bungoma courts were of assault culminating from domestic land disputes while in Webuye were robberies, burglary and theft contributed to by the closeness to the highway.

Mr.Cherono blamed the closure of Pan Paper factory in the region as a contributing factor to the state of poverty in the region and lack of an alternative economic activity to residents who depended on it for livelihood hence leading to over 300 theft cases a month.

“There is still a problem in administration facilities and cleanliness in the courts which when crowded by those in attendance become very stuffy and hard to work from,” said Mr.Cherono.

Mr.Makali revealed that the speed of disposal of Criminal Appeal cases was fast and that at the moment they were dealing with appeals for as early as the year 2011.

However, for Criminal offence cases like robbery in both Bungoma and Webuye towns most litigants in the cases complain of major delays in the ruling following the shortage of judges in the area with only 2 judges in Bungoma Court and 1 in Webuye.

“Despite the deployment of 2 more magistrates at the Bungoma courts the workload is still high with many pending robbery cases and still there is need for additional courtrooms to be put up to help ease the congestion,” said Mr.Makali.

Similarly Civil Cases are being processed slowly with others running to as back as 2007 and are yet to be ruled.

He said there was a shortage of magistrates and that more magistrates were needed in Bungoma County courts, 2 in Webuye courts, 2 in Kimilili, 2 in Sirisia and 5 more in Bungoma to serve the 7 courts.

Mr.Makali (Right) revealed that the Kimilili Courts serves up to Mt. Elgon region and suggested the putting up of a court at Kapsokwony in Mt.Elgon District to ease the pressure at Kimilili, while a court to be put up in Teso District to serve the people in the region that are dependent on the overloaded Bungoma court.

The hearing dates for civil and criminal cases in Webuye area are mostly issued at Bungoma court.

As per the ongoing process of vetting magistrates and judges Mr.Makali, called upon citizens to come out and give their complaints so that those involved in corruption deals can be made to account for it.

 “Judging from the time the reforms were set to begin most litigants appraised the change in the running of business at the court Registries among the clerical staff and the Magistrates as well as the Judges saying that the level of corruption and unfair handling had reduced though people are yet to gain confidence in the judiciary system,” said Mr.Makali.

They both commented on the realized double standards in the vetting process and warned that the outcome of the process will judge the performance of Judicial Service Commission and called for accountability and transparency in the process.

To others the vetting process is still unfair and has brought more harm to the judiciary than good as the less corrupted judges are removed and replaced by worse of judges which still means no positive change felt by citizens seeking justice.

However, as much as residents in the county still find the courts proceedings to be too complicated for them, they say that it’s hard for them to understand the judicial terms and always seek assistance of the clerks at the courts to understand the ruling.  Mr.Makali says there is no way the proceedings can be made simpler unless if alternative means of dispute resolution are defined.

Most litigants and citizens in general find the recent freedom given to the advocates to advertise their jobs as unprofessional and that may contribute to many of them not delivering fully in their obligations.

“Most lawyers are after money and not representation of an innocent man and therefore that rule may lead to many unjustified rulings at the expense of a poor man,” said Mr.Simon Kere a resident of Webuye.

Both law practitioners are challenging the Chief Justice to ensure that the judicial reforms are real and that they trickle down to the grass roots to achieve the sole vision of judiciary which is to effect fairness to those seeking justice. 

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