•Hopefully, with the specialized equipment, space and dedicated staff at Kahawa law courts, matters going to the facility will take shorter to determined.
•The frustrations being meted to people seeking justice through the criminal justice system in Kenya is real, and pushing people to the brinks.
The creation of special courts to deal with thematic matters in the country should be embraced and supported as a way of reducing case log but more importantly offering protection to persons involved in the matter.
The frustrations being meted to people seeking justice through the criminal justice system in Kenya is real, and pushing people to the brinks. While much on what the people seeking services in the system has been mentioned severally, rarely do we openly discuss the frustrations by the judicial officers including their safety, handling a case for too long or the professional feeling on not being able to deliver even on matters that you would have dispensed off in time.
Its my thinking that the establishment of the Kahawa Special law court to deal with national security matters including terrorism might be one good way to not only improve the search for justice for people including prosecutors, judicial officers, suspects and related to work in a secure environment and but also ensure there is consistency and prioritization of such matters for quick finalization.
It has been a concern that mixing matters such as corruption, terrorism and money laundering, with such routine matters like petty offences, which seem to require urgency on humanitarian grounds, has meant such cases then take too long because of interruptions.
Hopefully, with the specialized equipment, space and dedicated staff at Kahawa law courts, matters going to the facility will take shorter to determined. With time, the court should take up more matters such as tax justice, illicit financial flows, money laundering, corruption and tax evasion to ensure timely deliver of justice and more importantly, the safety and professional discharge of duties by the judicial and prosecution officers.
This will reduce the frustrations being experienced by people seeking justice in such matters, given the implication and gravity of the cases. In addition, matters relating to counter-terrorism and human trafficking should moved to that court. The special court at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport that deals with drugs and drug trafficking has done a lot to reduce the backlog and ensure the safety of officers involved.
Initially, suspects would be rushed to Kibera law courts in car chases that exposed the officers involved, exposed them and risked their lives. It took a lot of time and many foreigners on drugs related matters stayed in remand at the expense of the Kenyan tax payer while the same time while their cases dragged in courts for long, frustrating both families of the suspects and the judicial officers involved.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Services has announced plans to set up special courts that will be used by the judicial Services Commission on dealing with petty offences; thus it seems special courts approach is gaining currency.With expertise in the court, it will be expected that people interacting including the media have more understanding of laws, international regime, institutions, terminology, threat, processes, gaps, the difference between predicate offence types of illicit flows, terrorist finance etc.
With time, such specialists courts, we in the media believe, journalists will be better placed on give in depth stories on matters being handled there, develop sources, expand knowledge on legal issues, protect the safety of people involved in the matters and above all, avoid conflict with the law as journalists.
The court has developed professional guidelines for the media and how to cover the court.Its not the absence of laws that has frustrated the speed conclusion of matters but lack of space and prioritization. Kenya is currently dealing with the ever-growing threat of illicit financial flows that have wrecked including fuelling corruption in the country and has been linked closely to prevalence of terrorism, human trafficking and inability of states to meet their human rights obligations to their citizens.
Once the country is not able meet its tax obligations, and by extension to offer services to the citizens as public resources meant to finance public services are siphoned out of the countries to secret locations outside the region for individual gains, it creates room for violation of human rights.