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{
    "id": 590977,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/590977/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 43,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Katoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": "proceedings, equal opportunity to access judicial services, fairness of the entire process and simplicity of the procedure. Clause 34 talks about expeditious disposal of the case. What is making access to justice very expensive at the moment for a large population of Kenyans is the fact that these courts are not accessible to the lower levels of this country and again the costs of the entire process are high. But I think that will be cured with this Bill. If you look at what is happening now, you will realise that the entire process is very rigorous and the Bill is trying to simplify it by saying, under Clause 34, that you just present your case on a particular day and it shall be heard and determined on the same day. If it not possible for determination to be done on the same day, it shall be done on a daily basis until final determination. It goes on to say that in any event judgment shall be delivered not later than three days from the date of hearing. Just imagine a claim or case being heard on a daily basis and the hearing, determination or judgment is delivered not later than the third day from the date of hearing. That is very encouraging. If I give you an example of what is happening now you will be surprised. Yesterday, a case was being heard in the High Court and I will not mention it. It was pushed to the next hearing date that will be in February, 2016 and yet we are in October. That as they say is justice delayed; justice denied. So, this Bill is bringing that to a halt and ending the process of postponing the hearing of a case to more than six months. This is done within a maximum of three days. Another thing which is making our justice system very expensive is the legal fee that is required. At times it is very expensive to hire a lawyer. The fee for a legal practitioner or lawyer is often greater than the amount in dispute but, with this Bill you will not even need a lawyer. If you look at Clause 20, it says that the representative of the claimant, for that matter, shall not be a legal practitioner. You will not need a lawyer for this. So, that cost is also being eliminated. Therefore, it is important that this House supports this Bill and passes it so that cases will be disposed of in a timely and fair manner. As explained under Clause 4(3) of this Bill read together with Clause 11(2) - where we are talking about geographical jurisdiction - to give that effect of access to justice, it is said that it is going to be at the sub-county level or any other units that are decentralized. If it is possible we can even have these Small Claims Court at the ward level but the Bill has said that, at least, there should be one in every sub-county. Therefore, having such courts at that level of decentralization is going to enhance access to justice. If you look at Clause 13, you will find that it is trying to streamline the administration of justice in our courts and I think it is a very important clause. We will not have to jump from one court to the other. When you present a case in the Small Claims Court, the other courts have to wait until a determination is made and, again, if you have presented your case in a higher court, you will not have to bring it back to the Small Claims Court. That is streamlining the administration of justice. This Bill is very straightforward and is entrenching what we did last week. If you look at Clause 18 of the Bill, you will realise that it is allowing for other means of dispute resolution. I think when we did the Bill on administration and coordination of the High Court, we had this clause in it of allowing other means of dispute resolution. This clause is going to make the entire process simple, fair and not expensive. 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."
}