The Judiciary has launched an out-of-court mediation process to reduce the backlog of cases.
Court Annexed Mediation will be carried out under the supervision of the court, with a mediator appointed by the Judiciary.
Speaking in Nyeri on Thursday, Chief Justice David Maraga said the Judiciary was ready to partner with county governments for a successful mediation.
“We’re going to partner with county governments to get trained mediators,” Maraga said. The CJ said land and inheritance cases account for a majority of disputes that have dragged on in courts, but they can be solved through mediation.
He said the cases mostly involve relatives who can resolve their disagreements through mediation.
The CJ said there was no need for such cases to go to court and drag on for years. “We want to put a stop to that. We want to refer most of those disputes to Court Annexed Mediation where we have men and women of integrity to bring the people together,” Maraga said.
He said mediation will create a win-win situation to enable families to remain together. Brothers and sisters should not be divided because of disagreements in sharing resources, he said.
Maraga reiterated the Judiciary’s commitment to clear cases that have dragged for more than five years. Some of the cases involve huge sums of money that ought to be released to the economy, he said.
“We are doing all we can to clear them and we require county governments’ assistance for some cases which involve their people. We have to clear them,” the CJ said.
He said a case should not take more than three years.
The Judiciary will involve county governments in drawing up buildings plans and construction designs. Maraga asked the county administrations to visit construction sites and give their input.
Maraga said many land cases were pending and promised to have them cleared.
“The challenge is that we do not have enough personnel. Ideally, we should have like two judges in every county dealing with land matters but our numbers can’t allow that,” he said.
He said the Land Disputes Tribunal set up by the government was not properly run and had to be abolished. The CJ said cases like boundary disputes can be dealt with in villages.