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{
    "id": 989210,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/989210/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 326,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Baringo North, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. William Cheptumo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 50,
        "legal_name": "William Cheptumo Kipkiror",
        "slug": "william-kipkiror"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I arise to second and thank the Leader of the Majority Party for moving this Bill. Very briefly, let me say that the whole idea of the Small Claims Court (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No.4 of 2020) is to allow access to justice to Kenyans in a quick responsive, inexpensive and formal process. This Bill was passed in 2016 and it is to be amended now so that it guarantees the right to access to justice and the right to fair hearing pursuant to Articles 48 and 50 of the Constitution, respectively. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the law as it is now, denies the lawyers the legal representation of citizens, if they want to engage a lawyer. The Bill is such that it cannot allow a litigant to appoint a lawyer to act for him or her in those Small Claims Courts. That is in contravention of the Constitution which guarantees Kenyans the right to access to justice and representation, pursuant to Articles 50 and 48 of the Constitution. The other issues I want to say before I go to the specific provisions are that those courts were meant to be established in every sub-county and wards. Those are courts that are dealing with small claims. The law as it is now provides that the pecuniary jurisdiction of the courts be limited to Kshs200,000. This could have been done better if we were to have those courts established in our sub-counties and wards so that Kenyans are able to access services directly. Let me go to some specific amendments which are very important because this House should be informed about those specific sections. Section 12 of this Act provides for the pecuniary jurisdiction of Kshs200,000. There is a proposal in the Bill to increase it to Kshs1 million as said by the Leader of the Majority Party. The stakeholders who appeared before us, for instance, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), supported that. Lawyers should now be allowed to represent parties in ourts. The Ministry of East Africa and Regional Development supported the proposal. The legal practitioners did not support this proposal because they felt that Kshs1 million is not a small claim in our economy. The Judiciary initially gave us the impression that they were comfortable with enhancing the pecuniary jurisdiction from Kshs200,000 to Kshs500,000. However, we later got further communication from them that they now agree with enhancement to Kshs1 million. As a Committee, we had agreed on the Kshs500,000. Maybe, in the Committee of the Whole House, we will be able to deal with that issue. 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."
}