Chief Justice Martha Koome has revealed that the Judiciary is looking to train magistrates on preparedness for the forthcoming August 9, 2022, general election to ensure electoral justice is served in case of any electoral disputes arising during the period.
According to the Judiciary boss, 120 special courts have already been gazetted to handle disputes arising from the elections country wide as training is to be conducted on the courts’ magistrates.
“We will soon ask for training to be mounted for 120 special courts that we gazetted in the judiciary to deal with the electoral offenses because we must continue to read from one script,” said the CJ.
While speaking in Nairobi during the launch of the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) compendium on Electoral Justice at the Kenya School of Government, the CJ indicated that the judiciary is aimed at building trust in the judicial system among Kenyans.
Further the Supreme Court Head stated that she had issued a directive to magistrates handling hate speech cases under the National Cohesion and Integration (NCI) Act to finalize all pending hate speech cases by June 2022.
“We are also working on a plan to operationalize hate speech courts in hotspots areas to ensure that they are ready all the time to hear all these matters”,stated the CJ.
The Compendium made a major input in Zambia ,Ghana and the United States as it was used as a tool for prosecutors when guiding investigations and prosecuting Election and Hate speech offenses and is anticipated to work in the country after its launch by the ODPP.
