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{
    "id": 588893,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/588893/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 129,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Prof.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "okay while the Constitution is quite clear on that. Bringing this in is extremely important. If you look at the number of people who are employed under very unclear labour terms and are shed of easily, you will find that it is very high. They just complain and they cannot be heard because the courts that deal with labour disputes are not near. Therefore, making this available in the Magistrates’ Courts is extremely important in this Bill. I once heard a very prominent lawyer say that some cases are actually won in the streets and not in the courts, referring to threats to magistrates and judges by people who may choose to demonstrate and bring large groups of people. Protecting the court processes in this way and ensuring that when evidence required is given and nobody misbehaves is extremely important. I know one case where people were demonstrating and singing. When one of them was asked what they were singing about he said: “I actually do not know but I was paid to come here and make noise around the court.” Those are things that we cannot accept. Therefore, such things being brought out at the lower level of court is extremely important in ensuring that justice is done and seen to be done in a civil and acceptable manner. Hon. Speaker, it is important that there is proper administration of the courts, particularly with regard to keeping records. Sometimes, I think that development in some parts of the world really cannot go on because of the sheer lack of record keeping. A number of cases are lost just because records are not kept and cannot be retrieved in time. Nobody seems to have responsibility over them. Therefore, it is an extremely important issue to have an administrator who has authority and ensures those records are kept and particularly this time when they can be done in a digital manner. Finally, I like the flexibilities that are brought by Part V which says that the magistrate can hold sittings at any site and take evidence in any circumstances as long as it is within the law. Many times, people lose cases because we want to restrict where the court can sit. I will give you an anecdote of my uncle who used to be, in the old days, the African presidents of courts. He decided to take a dispute of who owned a chicken to a village in the evening and release the chicken to see which house it would go to. That way, it was decided that that is where the ownership of that chicken belonged. As much as it sounds interesting, it demonstrates the flexibility that we need under such circumstances if people have to get their rights. Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker for giving me this opportunity."
}