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{
"id": 588853,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/588853/?format=api",
"text_counter": 89,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kaluma",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1565,
"legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
"slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
},
"content": "For my own personal experience, we have a single resident judge of the High Court in Homa Bay. We know that we were to create courts dealing with employment, environment and land matters. So you have a single judge waiting for very few murder cases. We are lucky because we have very few people who engage in those very heinous crimes which have to be tried originally at the High Court. So, you have a great judge who is not seriously engaged but, when it is an employment matter, all the people of Homa Bay County have to move from Homa Bay Town, Suba or wherever across to Kisumu. What happens is that a person will borrow Kshs600 to move from my constituency to Kisumu and back. The Kenyan reaches Kisumu and the matter is adjourned. The next time the matter is fixed for hearing, he cannot proceed because he has no money and nobody trusts him to borrow. Essentially, we have a situation in which we have a High Court in Homa Bay trailing due to structures of the Constitution. That High Court is exercising jurisdiction and leaving aside matters of employment and environment and people are limited in terms of accessing justice in those areas. Matters of employment, land and environment are the common disputes between our people. The situation we have in Homa Bay, on land and environmental matters, is that people have to move to Kisii Law Courts on land matters. The cost of travelling to Kisii and back, together with other expenses, amount to Kshs500. We have people who, because of lack of money to fight for justice around land disputes, cannot pursue those parcels of land. Then you have a total stranger taking up land of people somewhere simply because they cannot fight for their rights before the courts across there. As a Committee, we are proposing that if it permissible within the law; let us enhance the jurisdiction of the magistrates across the country. They are lawyers trained like the judges and the lawyers in this Parliament. In fact, Hon. Speaker, I wanted to confirm to the nation that I know your history in the Judiciary. You stand out when you speak in Parliament as one of the best legal brains we have around. That is the case of those magistrates whose mandates we lower yet the people of Kenya are crying for justice across the country. Let us enhance jurisdiction on matters of employment and environment so that we do not have this limitation where there are a few judges that we cannot move around. There is a radical proposal that I took to the Committee, particularly on the area of disputes around the child. I know that this is a very controversial matter, especially when I, as Kaluma, speak about it. One of the proposals I made to the Committee is that if possible, we should ensure that the magistrates dealing with matters of children should be at the level of a principal magistrate and above. I am happy that I am explaining this thing beyond those extraneous issues Hon. Naikara is thinking about. There is no bigger matter that can be the subject matter of a court process than the life and well-being of a human being. In fact, in children’s court matters, the subject matter, unlike these other commercial courts where people fight over money, we deal with human beings. The decision the judicial officer makes has far reaching ramifications on that human being. If it as an erroneous decision, a life can be destroyed completely! If it a good decision, well enough. Because we have opened the court system, particularly at the level of subordinate courts, to any person who is qualified in law, they apply and start at the level of a resident magistrate. The idea that, for instance, you left law school and practised for one year or less and you are suddenly a resident magistrate presiding over children’s matters is very dangerous. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}