Judiciary to take over bail collection duty from counties

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga at a past event. Dr Mutunga has praised judges for making significant contribution in advancing the constitutional cause in a difficult political environment. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The banks involved are Kenya Commercial Bank, National Bank of Kenya and Cooperative Bank.
  • It also established that congestion in prisons was a result of stringent bail conditions.

The Judiciary will take over the role of collecting money for bail from county treasuries.

The move is aimed at reducing the process of refunding cash bail to a maximum of seven days.

The removal of court operations from the county treasuries will, however, be gradual and will see the transactions handled by banks through their electronic systems.

In June, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga said the Judiciary had identified refunding of bail money as one of the major handicaps in the justice system as members of the public find the process long, opaque and frustrating.

The Judiciary Bail Refund Framework, prepared by the Office of the Chief Registrar, is now promoting the introduction and implementation of three-bank rooted electronic platforms to eliminate delays in the refund of bail.

The banks involved are Kenya Commercial Bank, National Bank and Cooperative Bank.

According to the Judiciary, the new bail system has already been implemented in all court stations in Nairobi and will be spread out to others in the country after the establishment of required infrastructure to support it.

The Judiciary, in a document seen by the Nation, said the adoption of an electronic system will reduce the cycle of bail refunds that previously could exceed two months in many cases.

“The system also reduces workload in the time taken to issue cheques and prepare payment schedules and reduces the risk of fraud in payments, handling cheques and misappropriation of cash while promoting best practices in bail refund,” stated the Judiciary.

A report by a task force formed to develop bail and bond policy raised concerns about the delays in refunding cash bail.

It also established that congestion in prisons is a result of stringent bail conditions, which forced many petty offenders to be remanded as they could not afford to raise the amount.

PRISONERS

“Ideally, when the arrested person attends court, the police officer should take back the original receipt as they refund the suspect’s cash bail,” said the task force, which was chaired by Justice Lydia Achode.

The task force cited Kibera in Nairobi, Kitale and Bungoma as areas where the police were not prompt in refunding the cash bail.

“This poses a major challenge to the accused persons who are sometimes placed in cells as they wait for the refund. In some court stations, judicial officers complained of instances where accused persons parted with their cash at police stations without being issued with a receipt for the same.

“This is a concern in terms of accountability for the responsible officers and for the rights of the accused persons to a refund of cash bail,” said the report.

There are 120 prisons in the country with a capacity of 26,000 remandees and prisoners. About two-thirds of this population comprise remandees.

The Chief Justice has already issued bail and bond policy guidelines and wants police officers and judicial officers to consider the views of victims before making decisions that affect them.

“In particular, police officers and judicial officers should consider the safety of victims and victims’ families in fixing the amount of bail and the release conditions for suspects and accused persons.

“Victims should be informed about bail conditions imposed on suspects and accused persons, particularly those designed to protect victims and victims’ families,” said the CJ in the guidelines.