Narok Law Courts have launched a small claims court and Court-Annexed Mediation Registry that will exclusively deal with civil matters whose subjects are not exceeding Ksh1 million.
Speaking during the official launch of the Small Claims Court in Narok, the Presiding Judge, Justice Francis Gikonyo, said the core mandate of the small claims court is to enhance access to and expeditious delivery of justice.
Gikonyo mentioned that Narok’s court will address land and family division issues, reducing workload and resolving cases in a simple, timely manner.
Judgements will be issued within 60 days through fairness of process, and court-annexed mediation will be conducted with accredited mediators.
The Registrar of Magistrates Court, Caroline Kabucho, said the milestones that were achieved in the first phase of Court Annexed Mediation (CAMP), which came to an end in July 2017, were in the family and commercial divisions. The settlement rate was 55.75% and 53.8%, respectively, tallying a sum of Sh1, 418,324,646 that was being released back to the economy.
Thus, the launch at Narok Law Courts brings the tally to 55 mediation registries in the country.
She noted that the small claim court was operationalized on April 26, 2022, saying that currently a total of 32 courts and one sub-registry are operational.
The establishment of the court is part of a wider initiative to enhance the ease of doing business in the country by reducing the time and cost of resolving commercial disputes by having such disputes resolved through simple, inexpensive, and expeditious processes.
Hence, as of November 2023, 45,103 cases valued at over Sh8.6 billion have been heard and determined in various claim courts.
The County Commissioner, Isaac Masinde, thanked the judiciary for the launch of the two courts, assuring the judiciary of the support of the system and urged to train and inform the locals on small claims court matters.
The County Assembly Speaker, Davis Dikirr, praised the judiciary for the great move of establishing the two courts, saying it will help residents save billions of money that are used in court cases.
Furthermore, the chiefs play an important role in solving many of these small claims cases, adding that they require more training and sensitization so they can help to inform the society at the grassroots level.
By John Kaleke
