Judges board comes up with recommendations for Judiciary

The Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board has come up with recommendations it says are geared towards improving services in the Judiciary.

The board has presented the recommendations to the National Assembly's Justice and Legal Affairs and Constitution Implementation Oversight committees.

“We were here to share with the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee a report on some of the improvements on our Judiciary,” Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board Chairperson Sharad Rao said in Mombasa.

The board's vice-chairperson Roseline Odede said they believed the board’s proposals would help streamline efficiency in the Judiciary.

“Our main recommendation actually touches on the process of future reforms in the judiciary. The main reason for vetting was to ensure that the current Judiciary is in sync with the new constitutional dispensation,’’ Mr Odede said at the Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort and Spa on Friday.

“We have judicial officers who are aware of the Constitution and have a mindset that adopts especially Article 10 values of inclusivity, participation, equity and fairness,” she said.

She said the recommendations also focused on Article 159 provisions which takes of how justice should be delivered without delay and with fairness to all parties.

Some of the recommendations by the board include issues of access to justice.

Ms Odede said that there was need for facilities for persons living with disabilities: “We are asking for improvement in access to courts to cater for people with disabilities, facilities for the deaf dumb and the blind in the courts".

She said: "We are also asking for the expansion of the courts systems so that courts are located within every locality. Currently we have places where people walk over 500km to the nearest court, which is not fair”.

Ms Odede said that they were also looking into digitising filing systems and improving communication.

“We are looking at improved communications with members of the public so that if cases are not going to proceed they can be informed in time through an SMS (short message service) platform so that they don’t turn up in courts unnecessarily,” she said.

Ms Odede said that there was need to strengthen court administration systems by improving the Judicial Service Commission.

“The current JSC is overpopulated by members of the Judiciary, and there are concerns that Wanjiku needs to be represented or participate there too,” the vice-chairperson said.

The board also wants to set up an inspectorate to monitor the work of judicial officers.

“Our judicial officer need to be disciplined, we are looking at setting up an inspectorate of courts to keep looking and monitoring the performance of magistrates. Right now no one knows whether they appear in court, deliver their judgments and more,” Ms Odede said.

The board said that there were complaints about continued harassment of the public by county inspectorate and traffic officers.

“There are complaints of county askaris arresting people for no reason, holding them for 24 hours and taking bribes, traffic officers are a nuisance, getting into people’s cars and harassing individuals for nothing," she said. "We have proposed 24-hour petty crime courts, so that there is no more reason for holding people in a police cells for a petty crime.”

The vice-chairperson said that they were looking into having instant fines payable via M-Pesa. She said the issue of delays in courts was deliberated on.

The chairman of the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee, Njoroge Baiya, said the system should be able to discipline and reward judicial officers based on their delivery of service.

“We must make sure there is discipline among our officers...there will be a performance appraisal system and consequences for the non-performers," he said.

Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board Chairperson Sharad Rao said the board was scheduled to present the report to President Uhuru Kenyatta in July before it exited office.