Kwale County to get High Court in August

Judiciary’s infrastructure is set to receive a major boost with the set construction of a High Court in Kwale County in August this year to ease the burden of cases that are handled by the High Court sitting in Mombasa.

The design of the revolutionary project which is funded by the World Bank has already been done and tendering process ongoing.

Speaking in Kwale during the tour of the land donated by the County Government of Kwale for the construction of the court, Judiciary Performance Improvement Project Coordinator, Nancy Kanyago, said the buildings will house two High Courts, six Magistrate Courts and Kadhis Court among other facilities.

“We are here to present court designs to the court user committee of Kwale Law Courts. In the design, we have judicial offices, police and prison departments, cells for prisoners and house for children in juvenile centers,” she said.

Kanyago, who was in the company of Kwale County Chief Magistrate Doreen Mulecho, Kenya Police County Commander Kenneth Kimani, Kwale County Government CEC for Lands and Natural Resources Ali Mafimbo noted that it is a vision of the Judiciary to have a High Court in every county to cut down distances and enable the public to access judicial services easily.

On her part, the Chief Magistrate Doreen Mulecho said that currently the court is being served by three magistrates and two kadhis who are not enough.

Mulecho also noted that there are only two open court rooms and other three judicial officers are forced to use their chambers as court rooms, something she says limits the officers from holding proceedings.

“Our registry is small and the space we share doesn’t have divisions. Instead of separating criminal, civil and children division registry, we are forced to share them due to constraints of space,” she said.