Teso North residents have a reason to smile after the Busia Magistrate’s Court indicated that it will kick start operations in the sub county before the end of October.
According to Busia Chief Magistrate Lucy Ambasi, the court operations will commence once the National Government Constituency Development Fund completes the rehabilitation of the old Teso North Deputy County Commissioner’s office into a temporary court.
This will be a big relief to Teso North residents especially from the far flung areas of Changara who have been travelling for almost a hundred kilometers to seek for justice from the High Court and the Magistrate’s Court which are located in Busia town.
“We are hoping that by October it will be operational. We currently have a backlog of over 4,000 cases in the Magistrate’s Court, a bulk of which are from Teso North. Having a court at Amagoro will assist members of the public to have easy access to the court instead of having them travel all the way to Busia yet some of them come from the border of Busia and Mount Elgon in Bungoma County. We hope that at least we shall have made their journey shorter,” Ambasi said.
She noted that the court sessions will be on a temporary arrangement as they await completion of Malaba court which is a bigger one meant to hold four magistrates.
Ambasi who inspected progress of the ongoing rehabilitation of the temporary court said besides being a relief to residents, police officers who escort suspects to court will also have their journey reduced since it won’t be necessary for them to travel to Busia town.
By Melechezedeck Ejakait
