Chief Justice (CJ) David Maraga on Thursday announced jobs for the youth at the Judiciary.
Speaking during the official presentation of the State of Judiciary and Administration of Justice Report (SOJAR), 2017/2018 at the Supreme Court, the CJ indicated that the courts will soon hire youths to transcribe court proceedings.
"Together with the Ministry of ICT, the Judiciary plans to utilize the government's Ajira Program where we engage young people to do transcription of court proceedings thereby creating job opportunities," the Chief Justice revealed.
Maraga added that ICT Cabinet Secretary (CS) Joe Mucheru had confirmed that their collaboration to digitize the court proceedings was at an advanced stage.
The CJ further noted that out of 132 courts in the country,126 of them had connection to reliable internet services, a positive move towards digitization of the courts' system.
"The remaining courts are in extremely remote areas but every effort is being made to connect them to the internet," he added.
Maraga expressed optimism that digitization of the courts would see the country expedite the delivery of justice.
"The manual recording court cases is an onerous and time consuming activity that significantly hampers the rate at which we dispose cases," he highlighted.
The CJ has in the past decried that the judiciary is on the verge of losing its credibility due to delayed judgement indicating that if the delivery of justice to the sufferer is not timely, then it loses its importance and its a violation of their Human Rights.
For instance, addressing the Annual Judges' Colloquium (2018) in Mombasa, the CJ stated, "One of the cardinal principles in our Constitution is the expeditious delivery of justice. Justice delayed, is justice denied".
Quoting Malaysian Constitutional lawyer Cyrus Das, Maraga noted, "Justice is a consumer product and must, therefore, meet the test of confidence, reliability and dependability like any other product if it is to survive market scrutiny.
"Credibility of the judiciary is at stake now due to mounting arrears of cases, delays in disposal and also the high cost of obtaining justice.
"The denial of justice through delay is the biggest mockery of the law. It does not amount to mere mockery, the delay, in fact, kills the entire fabric of the justice delivery system of the country," Maraga concluded.
