Download PDF - The Judiciary

Chapter 3
State of Judiciary 2011-2012
29
3.0 ACCESS TO JUSTICE
The Judiciary’s core mandate is to ensure access to justice for all
irrespective of status. This implies both an obligation to remove
barriers to access to justice a positive mandate to take effective
steps to ensure that the Judiciary is open, transparent and available
to all who seek its help. Historically, access to justice for ordinary
citizens has been hampered by lack of physical access to courts for
many people due to the long distances; functional inaccessibility
due to complex and unfriendly procedures; lack of information and
court processes and procedures; delays in determination of cases;
and alienation of the ordinary person from the justice system.
The Judiciary’s core mandate is
to ensure access to justice for
all irrespective of status.
The first responses to the challenges the Judiciary faced in delivering
access to justice sought to confront integrity deficits, plug staffing
gaps, improve physical infrastructure and eradicate case backlog.
In response to the shortage of judicial staff, the Judicial Service
Commission embarked on an aggressive recruitment programme.
In the past year, the Judiciary has recruited 109 magistrates and
promoted 278 others as well as 12 Kadhis who were already in
service. Further, it has hired 36 judges of the High Court, 12 judges
of the Industrial Court and 15 judges of the Land and Environment
Court. These 63 new judges brought the strength of the superior
courts to 96. Seven High Court judges were elevated to the Court
of Appeal after successful interviews by the JSC. As provided by
section 7 of the Judicial Service Act, 83 Legal Researchers were
appointed to provide judicial support. However, only 63 took up
their appointment. A further 85 researchers are expected to be
hired before the end of the year.
Judges and magistrates are progressively being freed from
administrative duties to enable them to concentrate on their
judicial functions. In order to eliminate the problem of part-heard
cases, transfers are communicated in advance. As a long term
intervention, a transfer policy is under development.
A deliberate, innovative approach was adopted to tackle the case
backlog and deliver the quickest benefits for the Kenyan public. In
adopting the rapid results approach, the Judiciary used the Court