The country director of International Justice Mission Kenya, Benson Shamala has called for trauma-informed care services within the criminal justice system.
He was speaking on Tuesday in Nairobi where he presided over the launch of a booklet on mental health and psychosocial support for victims and witnesses.
Shamala said IJM seeks to ensure that the local justice system works for the poor.
"This is the group most likely to suffer violent injustice without recourse," he said.
Shamala said the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the fore the need for mental health and psychological support in the country.
He said witnesses who get counseled and are handled in a more sensitive manner, are better placed to become greater witnesses in court and provide critical testimony.
"If we handled victims of crime and witnesses of crime, with a knowledge of their mental well-being, even if that justice does not come the way they had expected, for sure, they will have become better people, and they can have trust in our criminal justice system," Shamala said.
He said the aspect of delays in the conclusion of cases can also be traumatic to witnesses and victims.
That the longer a case stays in court, the longer the dark cloud of the trauma hangs with the victims.
He said it is important to handle victims in a sensitive manner, knowing the mental torture that they have gone through.
"The goal now is to have a more sensitive handling of survivors and witnesses in our criminal justice system,"
He said this will reduce the impact of the trauma and the pain that victims have suffered from the crime that was committed against them.
