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| [PHOTO: Citizensheep / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0] |
Nairobi/Washington: Kenya has embarked on a major transformation of its judicial
system to improve key functions to promote better administration of justice and
delivery of quality legal services to court users.
“Kenya’s new constitution has created a window of
opportunity for the judiciary to address the problems that have for many years
frustrated the delivery of justice, especially to the poor,” says Johannes
Zutt, World Bank Country Director for Kenya. “Through this project, the World
Bank will support the government to strengthen the capacity of the judiciary to
deliver justice in an effective and efficient manner”.
The project comes at a time of growing public confidence in
the judiciary, following recent major institutional and managerial changes
pursuant to the new constitution, which Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for in a
referendum in August 2010.
Through the Judicial Performance Improvement Project, the
Judiciary will improve court administration and case management, including
automating the courts and clearing a backlog of court cases, training of its
judicial officers, and improving court infrastructure by constructing new
courts and rehabilitating existing ones.
These activities are reflected in the Judiciary’s Transformation
Framework 2012-2016.
“In approving the project, the World Bank’s Board of
Directors indicated its belief that there is a real opportunity to undertake
judicial reforms in Kenya. Since this is
the first stand-alone and largest project to the judiciary in Africa, its
success will be a model for other countries in the region. The challenge is to
scale up the important legal and institutional reforms that have already been
initiated to deliver quality and timely judicial services to the public. The project will need to improve the rule of
law and the climate for doing business in Kenya,” says Nightingale
Rukuba-Ngaiza and George Larbi, Task Team Leaders of the project.
The project is financed by the World Bank’s International
Development Association (IDA) under its standard terms, which include a term of
40 years with a grace period of 10 years.