The Judiciary on Saturday, June 13, released guidelines for court operations from Monday, June 15, in line with the Covid-19 prevention measures.
In a statement seen by Kenyans.co.ke, the new measures are geared towards scaling up the operations in the court safely.
"To promote social distancing, we shall limit the number of people physically accessing the courts at any given time. Kindly cooperate with the officers responsible at the court entrances," the Judiciary noted.
In allocating hearing dates, priority will be given to cases whose hearings were affected by scaling down of court operations from March 16, 2020.
For civil cases, courts have contact details of all parties and their advocates. Parties/ advocates are therefore advised to wait to be contacted by the court.
For criminal cases, accused persons will be summoned to court through the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Police.
"To control crowds, courts will allocate staggered hearing schedules each day, parties should note their allocated time and keep the schedule.
"Virtual hearings will continue, with limited physical hearings as necessary as advised by the court," the statement read in part.
In March, while issuing guidelines in the court, Chief Justice David Maraga directed that no member of the public should be allowed entry into court premises.
He further gazetted practice directions on electronic case management, necessitated by an earlier directive to members of the judiciary to work from home.
This directive prompted a need to assess how best the judicial service system will still keep running while adhering to the necessary directives of social distancing and staying home.
