FACULTY OF LAW

BACHELOR OF LAWS (HONS.)

JUDICIAL ATTACHMENT

FINAL REPORT

REFERENCE : LSG201-C002-0052/2020

STUDENT’S NAME : MUSAZILI PRUDENCE VICHETI

STUDENT’S ID : LSG201-C002-0052/2020

EXTERNAL SUPERVISOR : HON S.K. MUTAI

JKUAT SUPERVISOR : MR SADAT LUNANI

Date of Submission:

Student’s signature
 COPYRIGHT NOTICE

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the report has been prepared by myself to fulfill the requirements of the
faculty of law’s Judicial Attachment which is a course offered in the Bachelor of law Degree
program LLB, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Karen Campus.

MUSAZILI PRUDENCE VICHETI

LSG201-C002-0052/2020

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all those who gave me the possibility to
complete this report.

I also would like to thank all the people that worked along with me with their patience and
openness they created an enjoyable working environment. It is with great gratitude that I
acknowledge the help of these individuals.
 DEDICATION

I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude to God Almighty who made it possible for
me to start and finish my judicial attachment with no troubles and for the strength and knowledge
to write this report.

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 ABSTRACT

The judiciary faces challenges and problems during the application of law most of the time.
There are challenges faced during the application of law but that does not mean that there’s no
hope it also does not mean that the law is faulty because the judiciary tries its best to get and
deliver justice to every single individual who is in need of it.

This report aims to find out the challenges and problems faced during the application of law and
try and provide possible solutions to those challenges being faced. If the judiciary and the people
follow the solutions provided then the problems and challenges being faced will reduce a big
deal.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Content Page

Cover page i

Copyright Notice ii

Declaration iii

Acknowledgement iv

Dedication v

Abstract vi

Chapter 1

Introduction 1

Purpose of the report 1

Background of court 2

Chapter 2: Main Text

Problems encountered 3

Challenges in the application of law 4

Ideas on how to overcome the challenges 6

Chapter 3: Conclusions 7

Findings and Recommendations 8

References 9

JKUAT supervisor’s comment page 10

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 CHAPTER 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION
In this report, I give details on the application of law in Kenya. Identifying the issues
encountered during the application of law, challenges in the application of law and ideas on how
to overcome those challenges that are being faced during the application of law.
Also the main purpose of the report is to compare the experience of law in theory form and how
law is physically applied in courts. How different they are from each other.
My experience at Kitale law courts was quite interesting and educative at the same time. The
employees at the different stations were very friendly and helpful during my judicial attachment.
They helped me understand what was going at the different registries in court. I was taught that
all cases start and end at the registries.
After two weeks at the registry I was assigned to a magistrate, where I then started attending
court sessions. During the court sessions I got the chance to listen to different cases and I was
able to pick and learn a lot in my time in court. A criminal case has its own procedure so does a
civil case. After court I had sessions with the magistrate to whom I was attached to and I was
taken through different procedures and I learnt a lot.

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1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE COURT

I was attached at the Kitale law courts. Kitale law courts is located in Kitale town P.O. box
30200. The Kitale law courts has a high court, an environment and lands court and 9 other
courts, three are higher courts, one a childrens court and the other are lower courts. There are two
judges at the Kitale law courts and a total of nine magistrates. With the chief magistrate being the
overall head of the court.
At the Kitale law courts,there is a civil registry, criminal registry and the environment and lands
court registry. Different case files at the registry have different colours for easy tracking and
identification for example the civil cases case files are blue in colour.
The registry is where case files for continuing cases are kept there is also a movement, the
movement is a book where records of case files are written down to monitor the movement of
files, at what courts they are supposed to be taken, date of mentions, rulings and even judgments.
Then finally there’s the archives, this is where case files that are done with are kept. case files
whose cases are done with and were finished long time ago where sentencing was already given
just in case they need to be reviewed or checked on.

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 CHAPTER 2

2.1 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN THE APPLICATION OF LAW.

First while at the registry I found out that parties in different cases pay a lot of money in court for
example, there are court fees that are paid in filing cases except criminal matters the court fees
are of various categories and they include: court adjournment fees, certification fees and others
which may be a little too much for the parties to afford.

Parties do not just pay for court fees but also pay the advocates who represent them in court at
varying rates. They also have to pay the other parties for any inconveniences caused by them and
if they lose a civil case. This is a little too much for some people to afford. The application of law
is quite expensive.

Another challenge that I discovered in the application of law during the period of my judicial
attachment was delays. Delays often hinder a person’s access to justice speedily many delays are
unjustified and lead to unfairness in the legal system. Sometimes in criminal cases, the accused
person may stay in remand for a long period of time because since the case started the
complainant has never step, this leads to the suffering of the accused if at some point he/she is
found to be innocent.

Courts often lack adequate funding and resources to efficiently carry out justice. I noticed that all
magistrates do all their research by themselves this sometimes brings about delay because they
spend too much time doing research unlike judges who have researchers who do that for them.

There are very few judges who are supposed to carter for very many people the ratio of
magistrates to the people needing justice is quite low this really is a challenge that is being faced
in the application of law. It’s one of the challenges that I noticed is encountered during the
application of law during my judicial attachment.

Bonding of witnesses and accused persons who refuse to show up in court. Sometimes witnesses
in a certain case are bonded and yet do not still show up in court. This really causes delays and
also leads to the suffering of the accused person who doesn’t get to acquire justice in time.

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In other cases, the witnesses of a certain case may move to another area or another country. This
gives the gives the prosecution a hard time, where they have a task of looking for the witness to
come and testify in court.

In some cases minors are brought to court to testify maybe because they are victims or they
witnessed the accused in the wrong. Some minors below the age of ten years do not really know
the meaning of an oath so they end up giving unsworn evidence and it is not even known if the
child is telling the truth or not.

If the incident took place a long time ago, and a small child is brought forth to give evidence they
might not clearly remember what really happened on that day. If a child is unable to recall what
really happened his/her parent can give evidence on their behalf and tell the court what really
happened or what the child had told them.

The information cannot be proven to be that accurate or true. Thus is also one of the major
challenges and problems facing the application of law.

2.2 CHALLENGES IN THE APPLICATION OF LAW

i) Corruption

Corruption is one of the most crafty social phenomena. It erodes trust in public institutions and
hinders economic development and is unfair on the enjoyment of human rights especially by
people that belong to marginalized groups or minorities.

Corruption in the application of law is particularly dangerous as it has an impact on the safety of
citizens and their pursuit of justice. Corruption prevents progress in investigations in high profile
cases. Corruption in the judicial system breaks the basic principle of equality before the law and
deprives people of their right to a fair trial.

ii) There is no transparency

Decision making is not transparent. Consequently, it is difficult for individuals to become

involved in the process and to hold the decision makers accountable. The improvements could be
made in the way documents are drafted and made available. The availability of documents is
although another problem in decision making process. This is because the council operates

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behind closed and it is not possible for the citizens to identify who is agreeing to which proposals
or the basis on which they are.

iii) Inefficiency

The law making process has been criticized for being inefficient, especially as regards the time
consuming need to reach unanimity. Notably the law making remains extremely complex,
inevitably taking considerable time to reach agreement.

iv) Backlog of cases

The judiciary defines backlog cases as ones in a court inventory, which remains unsolved more
than one year since filing. Some cases stay in court for a long period of time. Sometimes for as
long as even 5 years.

v) Inadequate personnel

Human and material resources directly affects employee without proper human resource,
employee dissatisfaction could go unnoticed. In the Kenyan cours there are very few judges and
magistrates who handle very many cases this sometimes leas to delays and case backlogs.

vi) Justice is given only to the rich.

The justice system is premised on the notion that the rich and the poor should be treated equally.
But today, access to justice is based on how much a person can pay. People who are poor are
systematically treated worse than the wealthy.

vii) Lack of coordination in the justice system

The criminal justice often suffer from a compartmentalization and lack of integration of the
different components of the criminal justice chain, as well as lack of coordination and
collaboration with other sectors essential to ensuring integration responses to crime and violence.

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2.3 IDEAS ON HOW TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES

In the case of corruption, punishment of those involved in corruption is very efficient. That
involve firing the judiciary officials engaging themselves in bribery and corruption and
introducing of an adequate case management system and ethical training of judges and
magistrates.

Making relevant information readily available for people is an important way of improving
transparency this could be by producing a comprehensive financial report or making the people
aware of matters that are relevant to them efficiently.

The only way to settle backlog of cases filed in court is to be heard to the conclusion and
determined by judicial officers. Include a recommended case management timeline, set case
processing and closing goals and coordinate the availability of necessary supplies and materials.
Provide for regular meetings and communication between staff that perform case management
tasks.

In the case of justice being acquired by only the rich, people are to be empowered to stand up
against this kind of discrimination, encouraging people to call it out when they see it without fear
and to promote honest and open conversations. Helping people to communicate clearly to avoid
misunderstandings and lead by examples.

Coordination can be achieved through collaboration, creating a common understanding of the

problem being faced at a particular time. If a common frame for a problem can be identified that
multiple people can work with then the coordination issue can be solved.

If court fees can be reduced then a lot of people can be able to access justice. Some people find it
hard to take their matters to court because of large amounts of money that is required for them to
be heard.

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 CHAPTER 3

3.1 CONCLUSION

In this section I present the conclusions based on the research I have done related to the
application of law.

Some of the problems that I discovered during the application of law during my judicial
attachment were: cost, we find that parties have to pay a lot of money just to acquire justice I
think it would be better if some of the court fees could be reduce to make justice accessible for
everyone for the convenience of the less fortunate.

Delays is another problem, cases take too long in court without being solved. Some even stay in
court for over five years and this really inconveniences other people. This disadvantages the
parties mostly the accused person who might be innocent. Discrimination where justice is only
acquired by the rich is another issue that is being faced during the application of law, but people
should stand up and stand against such practices.

Magistrates on the other hand are very busy and have a lot of work to handle, they do their
research on their own unlike judges who have researchers. This really contributes a big deal to
the delay of cases because there is a lot of work to be done. Also the magistrates in courts are
few compared to the number of cases that are being reported every day.

The prosecution might have a problem and a hard time to follow up on witnesses so as to prove
and establish a prima facie case against the accused person.

There was a lot to be learnt during the judicial attachment. Though there are many challenges, I
believe that there is nothing that cannot be fixed. Although many problems and challenges are
encountered in the application of law. there are certain solutions that can help with that and help
deal with certain problems. There’s always a solution for everything.

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 3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

 Reduction of court fees. This will really help many people be able to access justice because a lot
of people are not able to afford the court services due to the large amounts of money required.
 Increase the number of magistrates. Hiring more judges and magistrates in court so that cases
will be able to be dealt with and finished with on time.
 Appoint researchers for magistrates just like judges so that they can be able to do and deliver
their rulings and judgment on time.
 Police to help and assist the prosecution to get in touch with the witnesses who cannot be
reached easily and also the accused persons who abscond.
 The judiciary should be more open and transparent to the people and explain to those who do not
understand what’s going on
 Documents be drafted and made available to people.
 Fire and remove from office judicial officials who are corrupt.
 Making relevant information readily available for the people.
 Provide for regular meetings and communication between staff that perform case management
tasks
 Empower everyone to stand up against discrimination like justice being given to the rich alone.

REFERENCES

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David H. McCleareth,et al, Introduction to law enforcement (eds.CRD press,2013)
Gabriel Lubale, Court Systems in Kenya 22 August 2012
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Gunn, L.A. 1978 “why is implementation so difficult? Management Services in Government 33:
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May, P. 2015 Implementation Failure Revisited Public Policy and Administration 30 (3-4)
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 JKUAT SUPERVISOR’S COMMENT PAGE.

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