{"id":4665,"date":"2020-03-21T16:01:52","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T16:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/kenya\/?p=4665"},"modified":"2020-03-21T16:01:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T16:01:52","slug":"its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court"},"content":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred.<\/p>\n

At the Supreme\u00a0Court\u00a0building, room 48, there is evidence of what would see Kenyans and lawyers interact with judges via a video link.In fact, at the time of the launch, in October 2010, several cases from Mombasa were determined by Appeal\u00a0Court\u00a0judges in Nairobi in the same room, online.<\/p>\n

\u201cVirtual\u00a0courts\u00a0will enable litigants appear before a judge via video conference without having to appear in person,\u201d said former Chief Justice Evan Gicheru during the launch. The project was to start at the\u00a0Court\u00a0of Appeal and spread to other\u00a0courts.<\/p>\n

On the first floor of the Supreme\u00a0Court\u00a0building, on the left wing, there is a room with some 51 inch televisions.<\/p>\n

Manually transcribed<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are also some servers which would connect the\u00a0courts\u00a0countrywide.<\/p>\n

Cameras, a computer and some wiring are evidence of the grand project of the former CJ.\u00a0But this was just a dream, a good dream that refuses to become a reality.<\/p>\n

Today, the room serves a different purpose.\u00a0Justice (rtd) Phillip Waki was at the heart of this project which saw the Judiciary host a delegation from the Israel Supreme\u00a0Court\u00a0which successfully runs a\u00a0virtual\u00a0court.\u00a0Waki then said the Judiciary would digitise\u00a0courts\u00a0in months.\u00a0The Covid-19 outbreak throws us back to memories of missing link in\u00a0courts\u00a0going\u00a0virtual.<\/p>\n

Justice David Maraga last week directed suspension of some legal services to avert spread of the virus. He said there will be no open\u00a0courts\u00a0and few judges and magistrates will hear cases, in their chambers.<\/p>\n

He too is for going digital and the idea is running in commercial\u00a0courts. However, they are so far just filing and recording proceedings manually transcribed.\u00a0And for some\u00a0courts, sending soft copy of the documents through designated emails is how far internet use has gone.\u00a0During former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga\u2019s tenure\u00a0virtual\u00a0courts\u00a0dream was accelerated.<\/p>\n

Former Chief Registrar Gladys Boss Shollei was steering the project wheel.\u00a0The Appeals\u00a0Court\u00a0have only the audio system -two speakers and microphones in each room.\u00a0At the commercial\u00a0court, there were stenographers which would transcribe in real time all that is said in\u00a0court\u00a0sessions. However, the machines were shelved on allegation that lawyers would confuse them with their English.<\/p>\n

Dr Mutunga also established Integrated\u00a0Court\u00a0Management System Committee (ICMS) on October 10, 2014 as a standing committee. Its primary objective was to midwife the process of actualising an efficient and effective\u00a0Court\u00a0Management System through ICT and advice on best ICT practices.However, in Milimani\u00a0courts\u00a0there are flat screens installed but they are off. There are others which have state of the art cameras and some stenographers but these too are not in use.<\/p>\n

Delayed dream<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2016, the Division recorded a total of 255\u00a0court\u00a0sessions and 1,800 proceedings produced using the system.\u00a0Proceedings in this period were ready for use in appeals within 3 weeks.<\/p>\n

Among those who interacted with the virtual court is Law Society of Kenya President Nelson Havi. He told africa-press that he battled with lawyers from Mombasa while in Nairobi and judges settled the dispute in an online session.\u00a0According to Mr Havi, the digitisation of the Judiciary has stalled not been embraced simply because of men and women who want to maintain the old order for their benefit.<\/p>\n

He says, technology is hard to cheat as footprints are left whenever it is tampered with.\u00a0\u201cThose opposed to diligence actually are behind the project stalling. The project was under Shollei and among the issues that followed her exit was the ICT project.<\/p>\n

I actually appeared in one\u00a0virtual\u00a0court\u00a0where us and lawyers from Mombasa submitted their cases\u00a0virtually,\u201d said Havi.Justice Maraga, during status of the judiciary launch in January blamed delay of the ICT dream on budget cuts by the Treasury.He explained that allocation of Sh400 million to ICT was scrapped off.<\/p>\n

The CJ regretted that the Judiciary is among the few Government institutions whose operations are still manual, a factor he blamed for disappearance of documents.\u201cKPLC sends us bills through SMS. If I want to file returns I sit in my house and send.<\/p>\n

That is not the case to the Judiciary. We have files disappearing. You will see how difficult it is. I therefore urge the concerned institutions, especially Parliament and the National Treasury, to ensure a fairer balance in the allocation of the limited resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AfricaPress-Kenya:\u00a0\u00a0In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred. At the Supreme\u00a0Court\u00a0building, room 48, there is evidence of what would see Kenyans and lawyers interact with judges via a video link.In fact, at the time of the launch, in October 2010, several cases from Mombasa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[637,434,2487],"class_list":["post-4665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-david-maraga","tag-judiciary","tag-virtual-court"],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred.\u00a0At the Supreme\u00a0Court\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred.\u00a0At the Supreme\u00a0Court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-21T16:01:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-21T16:01:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court\"},\"wordCount\":758,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"David Maraga\",\"Judiciary\",\"Virtual Court\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court\",\"name\":\"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court - kenya\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-21T16:01:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred.\u00a0At the Supreme\u00a0Court\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":533},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/\",\"name\":\"kenya\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court - kenya","description":"In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred.\u00a0At the Supreme\u00a0Court","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court","og_description":"In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred.\u00a0At the Supreme\u00a0Court","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court","og_site_name":"kenya","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2020-03-21T16:01:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":533,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court","datePublished":"2020-03-21T16:01:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court"},"wordCount":758,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg","keywords":["David Maraga","Judiciary","Virtual Court"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court","name":"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court - kenya","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg","datePublished":"2020-03-21T16:01:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred.\u00a0At the Supreme\u00a0Court","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/28\/2020\/03\/rclk6mlqrmbarapohst5e7513f04ab21.jpg","width":800,"height":533},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/policy\/its-blurred-vision-in-bid-for-virtual-court#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It\u2019s blurred vision in bid for virtual court"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/","name":"kenya","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}