Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Boss Shollei has urged Kenyans to use alternative dispute resolution for petty cases instead of taking them to courts.
Shollei said this will help to reduce case backlog that has been experienced in all courts across the country where some cases take even ten years to be heard and determined.
“It is sad that many cases have been taken to court and yet they are not supposed to be settled there. Cases such drinking illicit alcohol, marriage, and other small cases should be handled by chiefs and villages elders instead of being taken to court,” said Shollei in Eldoret town, Friday.
The former Judiciary Registrar said if these other avenues are used to solve petty cases, the backlog of cases will be reduced by 50 percent.
“The judiciary should also come up with a system where before a case is taken to court it undergoes vetting to know if it’s supposed to be in court or not since some people go to court to threaten others and waste courts time,” she said.
Shollei further asked the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to deploy more Judges at the Eldoret High court to replace the three judges who were recently transferred from the station about a month ago.