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{
    "id": 971086,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/971086/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 176,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilifi North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13373,
        "legal_name": "Owen Yaa Baya",
        "slug": "owen-yaa-baya"
    },
    "content": "disputes arise and people have to go to court to seek justice, poverty continues within the families because of delayed justice. As the JSC listens to us on this matter, they should ensure that cases do not take that long, so that we can reduce the poverty indices that have kept on rising. Another thing I would like to talk about is access to justice. There are two ways we can look at access to justice. Where is the court? How far is the court from the citizens? How do I get justice in that court? A lot of times people have to travel very long distances to access justice. For example, if one lives in Mariakani Town, which is within Kilifi County, and one’s case can only be listened to by the High Court, one is required to travel all the way to Malindi Town. First of all, the cost of travel is prohibitive. The cost of hiring a lawyer is also prohibitive. The cost of getting justice in this country is very high. Majority of the people we represent here cannot access justice. So, they give up along the way. So, access to justice becomes a challenge in terms of the distance between the litigant seeking justice and where the court is. We need to build more courts and bring them closer to the people. There have been plans to start mobile courts, but they have not succeeded. We need to bring courts closer to the people so that they can access justice. I remember very ugly incidents especially in Malindi and Mombasa where the Court of Appeal was moved to Malindi instead of Mombasa. People were straining to access the court because, in the whole of the Coast region, if one needed to go to the Court of Appeal, he had to go to Malindi. The lawyers in Mombasa said that they wanted the court in Mombasa. So, there was a lot of pull and shove. That is something that has not been resolved and we need to resolve it. We cannot have a whole region having only one place to go for appeal. We need to take the courts to the people."
}