Koome commissions construction of small claims court in Embakasi to handle claims under Sh1 million

Chief Justice Martha Koome has ordered the building of a Small Claims Court in Embakasi to handle claims under Sh1 million.
Koome said the court will be required to deliver verdicts within sixty days during the occasion on Tuesday.
At the same time, the CJ noted that the judiciary is dedicated to adopting technologies that reduce vulnerable populations’ digital marginalization.
“Due to this digital divide, the Judiciary is committed to adopting innovations that mitigate digital exclusion to ensure especially those from vulnerable groups are excluded from accessing justice,” she said.
She reported that the Judiciary is currently rolling out and implementing the Kenya Judiciary’s Digitization Agenda, 2021 whose key objective is to enhance the Judiciary’s institutional performance and enhance efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery.
Koome who is also the National Chairperson of National Council on the Administration of Justice chairperson highlighted that as courts improve their usage of technology, a digital divide presents itself in the context of access to technology and lack of the requisite knowhow to use technologies by some court users.
“Some of the innovations and strategies that the Kenyan Judiciary has deployed to mitigate the potential digital exclusion include the use of Huduma Centres to facilitate access to internet for e-filing and virtual courts and Constituency Innovation Hubs,” Koome stated.
Further, the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji, also present at the conference, stated that the ODPP is currently in the roll out process of the Uadilifu Case Management system which he envisions will help in obtaining data for crime mapping, analysis of crime-related patterns and to streamline the ODPP’s procedures.
Also present at the conference was Supreme Court Judge Isaac Lenaola, Rwandan Chief Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo , the EU Ambassador to Kenya Henriette Geiger and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Representative, Neil Walsh.