Coast residents shun court despite perennial land problems

Many people with unresolved land issues at the Coast do not seek legal help, a judge has said.

Mombasa Environment and Land Court judge Munyao Sila on Tuesday said they have only been receiving a handful of cases related to land.

He said the court has now been in existence for 10 years, but most Kenyans are still not aware of it.

“If you look around, there is a lot that can be done in the environmental bit of our jurisdiction but we do not have so many environmental cases. They are pretty few,” Sila said.

The judge further said there are things that have a negative impact on the environment but nobody really comes to court.

“It could be because of lack education, awareness of the presence of the court or just the society not knowing their rights,” he said.

“Therefore, it is important for us to reach out, especially the civil society. They can file public interest litigations related to the environment which we are here to hear.”

Justice Sila said the court, which has three judges, was formed after the 2010 Constitution and started its operations in 2012.

“The challenge of numbers came with the challenge of a backlog of cases that really impacted negatively on service delivery in the ELC," he said. 

"We have had recruitment and currently we are standing at 51 judges which is a fair number spread across the country.”

The judge said that the court has had a big mark in the country where it has impacted the society, the entire Judiciary and the whole population of Kenya because it deals with land disputes which are spread across all counties.

“We have made a serious impact in delivery of justice to citizens of Kenya regarding the land disputes and in my view is the biggest achievement that the ELC has made,” Sila said. 

“We are in the service industry and our role in the republic is to provide quality service delivery to the public on matters regarding the environment, and that is what we promise to do even in the coming years.”

Tina Owuor, a legal researcher at ELC, said there is an institution in the Judiciary called Court User Committee which was launched in March, working towards sensitising the community on the existence of the court.

She said the committee, which is sponsored by the Legal Resource Foundation, has 10 stakeholders of the ELC from different organisations who come together to discuss issues affecting the common citizens.

The environment court, which covers Mombasa and Taita Taveta counties, has a plan of doing legal aid in September to sensitise the community on the importance of the institution.

Apart from the sensitisation programme, the court and the committee are also conserving the environment through planting of trees and mangroves.

On Tuesday, they planted 1,000 mangroves at Aldina Conservation site in Jomvu constituency.

They also planted 30 trees at the premises of Court of Appeal, Mombasa Law court and Mombasa's Justice Tower to celebrate the World Mangrove Day and the commemoration of ELC at 10.

The team is expected to plant at least 5,000 mangroves and 10,000 trees before the ELC at 10 conference which will take place in November in Kisumu county.

(edited by Amol Awuor)