The Judiciary Ombudsperson has powers to resolve complaints and is empowered to receive and consider complaints from any person who has grievances against the Judiciary of Kenya. The office is mandated to receive complaints by members of the public against judicial officers/staff, staff against staff and staff against the establishment of the judiciary.
Kennedy Bidali, Senior Principal Magistrate / Deputy Registrar, Office of the Chief Justice, is the current head of the office. The vision is to provide a confidential, neutral, independent and informal process that facilities fair and equitable resolution of grievances.
Interlinkages
- The office of the Ombudsperson works with the office of the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice, Chief Registrar and the Judicial Service Commission in the fulfilment of its mandate.
- It co-operates with government agencies, e.g. Public Service Commission, Advocates Complaints Commission, Kenya National Human Rights Commission, Commission on Administrative Justice and Law Society of Kenya among others.
- The Judiciary Ombudspersons office helps to identify potential areas of conflict, wrongdoing, administrative abuse and provides information on individual and customer rights.
- The Ombudsperson serves as an organizational ambassador.
Judiciary Service Desk
The Judiciary Service desk is an automated grievance redress management system that integrates all internal and external Ombudspersons functions under one information technology infrastructure. The service desk has all judiciary departments and court stations integrated seamlessly to allow ease of ticket handling.
Agent Web Interface
All agents will use the agent interface to work with the Service Desk. Agents answer the customer requests, create new tickets for customers or other agents, add notes on any communication with the customer, update the FAQ entries, edit customer data e.t.c.
Customer Web Interface
Customers have a special web interface in the system. Through this web interface customers can get an overview on own tickets, create and edit tickets, change the account settings etc.
Core Functions
The core functions of the office of the Ombudsperson include;
- Receiving and processing complaints and grievances by the public against employees of the judiciary.
- Handling complaints between individual employees of the judiciary.
- Complaints by the employees against the Judiciary.
- To publish quarterly reports on complaints received and action taken.
- Appraise the administration on significant trends and recommend changes in policies and procedures.
Characteristics of Judiciary Ombudsperson
- Independence
- Impartiality and Fairness
- Credibility of the Review Process