•Chief Justice David Maraga has said that the digitisation of all operations in the Judiciary to help in expediting cases is at advanced stage.
Kenyans seeking justice in courts will no longer wait for years for teh conclusion of their cases if the ongoing digitisation in the Judiciary is completed.
Chief Justice David Maraga has said that the digitisation of all operations in the Judiciary to help expedite cases and keep the integrity of records is at an advanced stage.
"Currently, we have stores, we have actually godowns, where we are keeping files. Even as judges when you sit down to write the judgement you need a big room to be able to go through the records and get what is there. But if we move to the digital world, as we are trying to do, it will be very easy," he said.
The CJ noted that the Judiciary has faced challenges handling manual records, including the inadvertent destruction or loss of records, especially exhibits from files.
“Most of the exhibits are loose documents, which are in the files and in the course of handling the files, they can easily be misplaced,” he said.
In some instances, he added, exhibits disappear from the files as a result of a collusion between the parties involved and some staff at the Judiciary.
The CJ spoke when he opened a capacity building workshop for judges on cyber-crime and electronic evidence at Radisson Blu Hotel, Nairobi.
The three-day training has been organised by Attorney General Alliance Africa Alliance Partnership in collaboration with Judiciary Training Institute.
Maraga said the Judiciary has set aside Sh400 million to its ICT department in the current financial year to help in the digitisation.
Already, all proceedings at the Supreme Court have been fully automated, with Maraga saying the Court of Appeal is next in line.
“We have started the pilot project in the commercial division and we are now in the stage of acquiring equipment. Once we are done with that, we shall move to other divisions,” he said.
Maraga said the training is important for judges to understand the kind of knowledge one has to have to handle cyber-crimes and understand how they are perpetrated.
"As we advance in technology, crime also advances and cyber-crimes are all over. So, a workshop like this one is extremely important for our people to understand the kind of knowledge one needs to handle those cases," he said.
AGA AAP Board member Markus Green said many Kenyans are exposed to cyber-crimes such as identity theft and money laundering due to lack of smart cybersecurity strategies and the ever-growing transformation of cybercriminals.
He said Kenya is ranked third in Africa and 45 globally in the 2017 World cybersecurity Index.
Last year, cybercrime cost the country Sh21 billion, necessitating development of a strong cyber awareness, industry aligned processes and procedures.
“There is need to train judges to have a working understanding of how to gather electronic cyber-crime evidence so that they can deliver justice in their cases,” he said.
AGA AAP provides a platform for exchanging ideas and raising awareness of global concerns relating to transnational capacity building as well as promote the rule of law to the African Legal professional.
AGA AAP has presence in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.