The Chief Justice Martha Koome has today decentralized Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) stations and e-filling systems out of Nairobi to other regions.
Speaking at the Supreme Court, the CJ announced that Kenyans will be able to access justice with respect to political disputes without having to travel long distances to access justice.
The move comes as a big relief to political aspiring candidates as they can now realize the goal of access to justice with respect to the resolution of political disputes across the country.
“This ensures that access to justice with respect to this category of disputes will be cost-effective, expeditious and convenient. It should be noted that during previous electoral cycles that is 2013 and 2017 electoral cycles, all disputes arising between political parties’ primaries were filed in Nairobi. This caused challenges in terms of accessibility of justice given the distance some litigants had to travel to Nairobi to access the Tribunal,” said Koome.
She added that the Judiciary’s vision to deepen access to justice has decentralized the PPDT to seven regions including; Milimani Law Courts-Nairobi, Meru Law Courts, Mombasa Law Courts, Kisumu Law Courts, Kakamega Law Courts, Nyeri Law Courts and Eldoret Law Courts.
Koome noted that the judiciary is leveraging technology through the e-filing system for efficiency of the delivery of justice by the PPDT.
“It ought to be appreciated that the Judiciary has identified the use of technology as an enabler for efficient service delivery. It is in line with this that we have activated an e-filing system for the PPDT. This means that we expect those who will be filling cases before the PPDT to use the online filing system,” Koome said.
She announced that for decentralization and the e-filling process to function effectively, they have designated contact persons being the Court Administrators and ICT officers, to assist any persons who will be in need of guidance or assistance on filing of their political disputes.
“I assure Kenyans that the PPDT and the Courts are ready and well-prepared to handle any disputes arising from the political parties’ primaries and other electoral disputes including working beyond normal working hours and on weekends to meet the ends of justice,” Koome said.
She commended the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Anne Amadi, members of the PPDT and the Office of the Registrar and other partners who worked hard to see to it that these twin interventions, that are crucial to our goal of deepening access to electoral justice, become a reality.
By Alain Christian and Mwereza K. Sorotina
