CJ Koome engages with partners on priority programmes for Judiciary
Chief Justice Martha Koome held a consultative meeting with Development Partners Group and Heads of Missions to engage on priority programmes for the Judiciary.
The meeting discussed, among other items, financial mechanisms to support the independence and integrity of the Judiciary, the digitisation agenda of the Judiciary, infrastructural expansion and avenues to facilitate access to justice.
The Chief Justice said the Judiciary seeks to ensure accessibility to courts by having a Magistrates’ Court station in every sub-county and a High Court and Court of Equal Status in every county. This is geared towards ensuring that no one travels for over 100kms to access judicial services.
“We are also rolling out Small Claims Courts to address social grievances especially for the economically vulnerable members of the society and to improve Kenya’s ease of doing business at the community level,” the CJ said.
She added: “We are promoting the use of multi-door approach to resolution of justice by strengthening the operations of Alternative Justice Systems (AJS) and Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR) mechanisms like mediation.”
CJ Koome said the Judiciary will provide Mediation and AJS Suites in court stations where there is the requisite physical infrastructure to accommodate the suites starting with the Kajiado Law Courts this month.
She explained that Judiciary intends to pursue Green Justice that encompasses a crucial component of environmental sustainability.
“Our intention is to utilise solar energy to connect courts that are off the grid, install bio-technologies for waste management in courts around the country,” CJ explained.
She revealed that the Judiciary will enhance the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in our operations by optimising the operations of virtual courts, e-filling, and case management, and use the same in our administrative processes.
The CJ added that the institution intends to enhance e-filing and Case Tracking System (CTS) which will involve scanning 700,000 pending court files. Currently, 32 courts are using the transcription and recording system. This means there is a gap of 600 courts in need of support in transcription and recording.
