Kenya's National Council on the Administration of Justice validates audit

At a seminar held in Nairobi, representatives from the National Council heard the findings, provided input and validated the finalisation of a comprehensive audit of the criminal justice system in Kenya. The report was prepared by Legal Resources Foundation Kenya, Resources Oriented Development Initiative Kenya, and CSPRI.

The findings clearly indicated that powers of arrest and detention are over-utilised in Kenya and that a substantial proportion of arrested and detained persons are in custody on petty crimes, in particular, crimes which are often dealt with administratively in other countries. A high rate of successful appeal on capital offences was also observed. The findings were engaged with robustly by the participants who asked a number of probing questions. The study presents a comprehensive empirical survey on the Kenyan criminal justice system and is highly relevant to criminal justice and law reform initiatives. The full report will be published by the Kenyan partners later in 2016. The partners are hoping the public launch of the results will coincide with the appointment of the new Chief Justice of Kenya.