Machakos law court has launched the court users committee to sensitize the community on children rights and also ensure that justice prevails.
Speaking at the Machakos law courts, Justice Teresia Matheka said that the committee will promote a child friendly administration of justice.
“We had a children task force formed in 2016 by former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to deal with children rights which functioned for 5 years, but faced some challenges. This year, the Chief Justice Martha Koome has put up a standing committee to ensure the recommendations passed by the taskforce are put in place,” said Matheka.
“It is the duty of this committee to educate the citizens in the jurisdiction to understand children rights, ensure that children cases are not disregarded in court and also ensure that people are aware of the laws governing both issues that should be handled in court and those that should be handled by family members,” she added.
Matheka encouraged the committee to be children rights ambassadors and asked chiefs and their assistants to look out on the children since they are in-charge of the lowest administrative unit hence can easily interact with people and report it to the relevant bodies.
The High Court Judge added that they will ensure children who don’t have representatives to speak on their behalf have lawyers who will assist them in their cases since they can’t express themselves like adults do.
“We launch this committee because children are not given a lot of attention and through the court users committee we expect the members will be able to give them the attention that they deserve,” said Matheka.
In cases where the child committed the crime, the committee should ensure that the child is completely reformed, regardless of whether they were disciplined at the children’s remand center or at home.
She further noted that for a child to get their rights, all the parties concerned, including the parent or guardian, chief and judges should be involved to ensure that the child lives in a safe environment even after the case is resolved.
Matheka asked guardians taking care of orphans not to change the child’s surname in their documents since according to the law, the child will be considered having a parent who is still alive and may not be eligible for assistance from various foundations or even the government as an orphan.
She further stated that the month of November has been set aside by the judiciary as child justice month and therefore children users committee will be responsible for those months’ duties.
The committee will meet to review the cases that are stuck in court, collaborate to solve them and hold each other accountable in accordance with the law.
Matheka said that they are ready to collaborate with other partners to protect children rights not only in Machakos County, but the whole country as well as devolve the committee to the locations.
The Chief Registrar of judiciary Anne Amadi said that the children Court User’s committee concept is established under the national council and administration of justice and incorporated into Kenya’s justice system and is intended to fill the gap that the ordinary user’s committee cannot deal with.
“We all know that regular Court user’s committee have been more effective in helping us in criminal cases to some extent that civil cases, land cases but they have not in a particular way focused on children so we are happy that the launch of Machakos Children Court user’s committee is creating bridge that we could not have come at a better time because we know that the children act of 2022 has just come into effect and this was on 26th July 2022,” she said.
According to Amadi, the act gives the Kenyan child new hope and it all comes together to undertake their respective roles to ensure that the Kenyan child is today in a better place.
The Chief Registrar asked the committee to be committed in their respective roles to ensure that the children within the county enjoy the fruits of the launch.
She further urged the community to continue identifying the gaps so that the committee can initiate the necessary actions to enhance child justice.
By Rachael Kilonzo
