The Judiciary of Kenya has entered into a fresh capacity-building partnership with the Attorney General Alliance Africa, after signing an extended MoU.
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the Director of JTI, Supreme Court Judge Smokin Wanjala, and AGA-Africa Board member Markus Green was witnessed by Kenya’s Chief Justice Martha Koome in Mombasa on Tuesday.
She said the agreement will support sharing of knowledge and experiences, development and strengthen human and institutional capacity, access to and exchange of information.
The CJ said the agreement comes at an opportune time when the judiciary is embarking on revamping its judicial education and training.
“It is therefore great to have AGA-Africa on board as our first partner in this journey into a bold future for judicial education in Kenya,” Koome said.
She explained that in the Social Transformation through Access to Justice Vision for the Judiciary, realisation of the dream of establishing an accessible, efficient, expeditious, cost-effective, and fair system of justice was anchored on having an inspired team of judges, judicial officers, and Judiciary staff committed to excellence in the delivery of justice.
The MoU replaces the 2019 agreement with the then Conference of Western Attorneys General of the United States of America (now Attorney General Alliance), which is a bipartisan group originally of Western States but currently represents an association of Attorneys General, Federal, State, and foreign officials, public and private sector partners throughout the world, including Africa.
Justice Wanjala said during the signing that in three-year period, JTI in collaboration with AGA-Africa “has trained over 100 judges from various courts on cybercrime and electronic evidence and over 130 magistrates in human trafficking.”
JTI is mandated to coordinate continuous judicial education for judges, judicial officers, Judiciary staff and conduct research and develop draft policy relevant to the administration of justice.
The training institute is also tasked with spearheading constructive engagement and feedback with stakeholders and other Arms of government on behalf of the Judiciary.
“AGA-Africa seeks to establish and foster robust relationships with justice and law enforcement agencies throughout Africa, to support the rule of law and combat transnational criminal activities. We are cognizant of the fact that cross-border crime does not respect borders,” Green said.
AGA-Africa has a presence in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.
