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{
    "id": 590185,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/590185/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 124,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogolla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. Where we stand today in terms of the judicial processes, one of the main problems we have is the whole issue of access to the courts. When we talk about a court, many Kenyans see jails straightaway. They do not look at a court as a process or a place where they can adjudicate their matters. What they see is a case that has been pre- determined and so, when a matter goes to court, that means jail straightaway and nothing else. This Bill comes at a time when we want to recognize the gains that the new Constitution has brought out in this Country. The Constitution is very clear in terms of making sure that access to justice is made simple and procedures and technicalities are reduced in a manner that every Kenyan is at a place that can handle their matters whenever they have any dispute any time. I want to believe that this Bill is going to address that. This Bill also brings in a lot of informal arrangements in terms of handling issues to the extent that it is putting aside issues like the strict evidential arrangement in court; and giving the Chief Justice (CJ) the space to introduce procedures like the use of telephone. This is a good way to go in terms of accessing justice. With regard to the whole issue of non-judicial approaches to disputes, many times people resort to different ways; either in terms of taking the law into their hands because they cannot access the courts, or trying to deal in arrangements that are not judicial. Many people have been losing their lives because of little disputes which I want to believe those courts are going to handle in good time. If you let adopt issues of simple procedures, it will help. The lock-jam that we have in courts is caused by cases that are fairly small. If you compare this to how we look at our development economics, a lot of contribution in terms of our economy is from very small peasant farmers or peasant dealers of different things. When they are put cumulatively together, they contribute a lot to this country. This is exactly where our courts find themselves in. There are too many small cases that when they are cumulatively put together, they cause the lock-jam in terms of the traffic of cases in courts. I want to believe that this piece of legislation is going to address that and help us move in terms of speed that matters take in courts. Many a times, we have seen very simple matters take more than two years or five years in court. That has really been unfair to Kenyans. In a similar manner, people end up in jails out of small issues that could have been easily sorted out in a very different way. As we look at this, from my side, I want to believe that there are a lot of issues in the Bill that will have to be amended. One is that when we have made the court to be as simple as it is portrayed in the Bill, the next thing is to get it out of the precincts of the normal courts the way we know them. For example, many of our people do not want to access the normal court houses because of some of the things that I have mentioned. But if we locate them at the sub-county levels, sometimes, it is even better that we get them completely out of the precincts of the normal judicial court areas or court premises such that they operate like the probation offices or the children’s offices that are handling a lot more issues that could be ending in courts, but are not. 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."
}