Chief Justice David Maraga on Thursday gave a tongue lashing to Judiciary employees over poor connectivity when he toured Milimani court to see progress of e-filing.
“I want connectivity, that's why I was talking in tough language. This building and the Supreme Court building should be the ones with the strongest connectivity. We can't accuse lawyers of failing to file cases when the problem is with us,” the CJ said.
For the e-filing and digital courts to be a success, Judiciary needs to invest in high capacity bandwidth.
Maraga who visited the Milimani court a day after the launch of e-filing encouraged the Judiciary staff to put in extra effort to make the project a success to deliver services to 'Wanjiku'.
“I came here to see what is being done but, most importantly, to tell you how important the work you are doing is. It is tedious work but it has to be done. Besides the little money we pay you, remember we are doing service for 'Wanjiku',” he said.
Under the new electronic system, all lawyers, police, DPP and members of the public are required to register themselves through a portal to log into the Judiciary system.
The portal is on https://efiling.court.go.ke.
After logging in, one is expected to upload documents and also assess court fees.
Subsequently, one has to submit the files to the registry online for the matter to be filed and placed before a judge for hearing.
Maraga asked the ICT staff to come with a tab which will allow judges to download an entire court file and carry it home to write judgments if need be.
“I want that tab to be introduced so that at a click the entire file is copied and transferred to judges. Why do we have to download page by page?” he wondered.
During the launch of the e-filing on Wednesday, the Judiciary said that at least 170 lawyers logged into the new system and filed cases.
The courts will require between Sh500 million and Sh700 million to maintain and expand the ambitious digital project countrywide.
Edited by Henry Makori
