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{
    "id": 974107,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/974107/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 655,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "follow known legal standards. I do not know what is going on, but that is something that needs to be looked at. If the Judiciary senior officers do not have the capacity to monitor the jurisprudence that is coming from the various courts, then you will have a case like the one that was cited today where a mother has been given nine days in a year to access the child. Which mother can have nine days to see her child? If we are not able to balance the way we are dealing with these things, then we will be seeing many calamities because people will be taking the law into their own hands. Again, as Parliament, we need to look at that. On access to justice, we are not able to facilitate the Judiciary. In my constituency, even if you do not talk about the court that I am talking about, the Mbita Law Courts, we have several islands that need mobile courts. That is a resource in itself. Before we talk about the completed court, how do the courts reach other areas that need boats? Because of this, a lot of cases of sexual violence are not dealt with. People would rather deal with them at their levels. I want to encourage the Committee. It has talked about the need for policy on timelines for completion of cases to deal with issues of backlog. However, I want to caution that we should not sacrifice justice at the altar of expediency. As my good colleagues know, sometimes it is not just the judges, but the advocates and the litigants themselves who will get excuses to delay cases and their matters to proceed, especially when they think the decision may not be favourable to them. When we provide a policy - I know this is a challenge that the Judiciary is grappling with - and say that these cases have to be dealt with by this time, then the persons that are likely to suffer, especially in criminal cases, are the victims. For example, if I am a perpetrator, I would just delay knowing that at the end of the day, when the time comes, I will be acquitted because of no show. I am surprised that the Small Claims Courts have not been operationalised. I have learnt about that now. I want to urge the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee to take up this matter seriously. That will help to ease the congestion in the courts by freeing the courts of the smaller cases that are there. I want to laud the Judiciary on some of its decisions. For instance, Justice Martha Koome recently made a good decision on equality. People always think that when you talk about gender equality, it is only about women. In this case, she made a decision that favoured men because inequality is not just about women. In a situation where you find the woman is working and the man is not working, the man needs support as much as the woman does. For us, as women, we need to understand that equality has to do with taking care of both men and women. It is not just about women. With those few remarks, I support. Thank you."
}