The North Rift Theater Ambassadors (NORTA) in Uasin Gishu is implementing a project dubbed ‘Justice Under the Shade’ funded by European Union (EU) and UNDP through Amkeni Wakenya, a Kenyan governance facility to promote access to justice through the Alternative Justice System (AJS).
Speaking in an interview with the Kenya News Agency (KNA) in Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu County, NORTA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Kennedy Ruto highlighted that the programme started in August 2023 and has been helpful in accelerating access to justice especially for women, who have been able to secure their rights in terms of succession of family property, as compared to before when the society had despised and marginalized women in terms of owning property.
Through this initiative which deals with matters of AJS, he added that they have been able to train over a hundred elders called Kipkap Kokwet so that they can be able to solve cases in the traditional way.
The CEO alluded that the model has assisted in creating a win-win situation besides solving several cases especially dealing with matters of succession and matrimonial property.
“We have various scenarios where five women from the Ziwa area have been able to rightfully inherit land which was initially owned by their late husbands,” he said.
He noted that so far in the last one month they have been able to solve over 10 cases involving families in dispute about succession particularly for women who have been marginalized for long.
He further noted that the project on access to justice for the poor and marginalized, they realized that most of the women are being chased away by their in-laws when the husband passes on whereby the widows are accused of being the cause of the death of their spouses, which is a ploy to deny them the family’s inheritance like land and other property.
Ruto emphasized that they have done it severally across the county like in Ziwa, where they were able to solve the matter of a woman who had a long running case in court and through the organization’s intervention working together with the local elders whom they trained, were able to withdraw the case from the court and she was able to get her rightful inheritance.
He commended the project, which involves sitting down under the shade and solving disputes the traditional way, noting that it has been effective in terms of expediting the process of access to justice unlike the long court process in terms of adjudication.
The NORTA CEO underscored that the model has played a key role in reducing case backlog in courts, for instance a case involving two families who failed to resolve their matters in court for approximately 10 years, prompting them to bring back the matter of dispute under the alternative justice system.
“We are targeting three sub counties of Soy, Moiben and Kapseret. My advice to heads of families is to consider writing wills so that succession may be done easily upon the demise of a family member,” said the CEO.
Additionally, the organization has also trained women on matters of succession and inheritance of matrimonial property so that they are enlightened on their rights in marriage and on ways to acquire their rightful matrimonial property upon the passing on of a family member.
He urged local administrators like chiefs, who deal with the matters of succession in terms of writing the list of dependents and other forms of agreements, to exercise impartiality, noting that impartiality is crucial in order to create a win-win situation so that the disagreeing parties may coexist peacefully in their day-to-day life in the society.
Ruto hinted on plans to train journalists in order to ensure responsible reporting on matters of succession and inheritance of matrimonial property.
The NORTA boss indicated that they are working together with courts through the Court Users Committee (CUC) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) on cases that can be withdrawn and be solved outside court in order to bring harmony in the society.
By Ekuwam Sylvester
