Village court officials to become reserve police: Kwa

By SAMUEL BARIASI
THE Department of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG) will help village court officials become reserve police personnel in order to give them more power, DJAG secretary Dr Eric Kwa says.
Dr Kwa said village court officials were the frontline of justice in communities, therefore, they needed to be trained.
“This is one of our seven thematic areas to address issues with law and order in the country,” he said.
Dr Kwa said operations of the village courts needed to be boosted in order to prevent crime.
“We have 1,680 village court areas in the country, and we have 18,000 village court officials who are in the villages and putting out fires.”
He said DJAG agreed that village peace officers needed to have the power to arrest, charge and process potential criminals.
“Village peace officers or clerks can be employed as persons that can gather intelligence in rural areas so they can become the eyes and ears of the police in areas they (police) cannot reach,” he said.
“In most villages, people tend to take the law into their own hands, that’s where this approach will help.”
Dr Kwa said peace officers must be grade 12 school leavers because the police force would not accept grade 10 school leavers anymore.
He said DJAG had seen a drop in financial support from the Government over the last five years.
“It is a challenge but it does not mean that we have to blame the Government for giving us reduced funding and resources, it’s about being innovative in the way we use it.”
He said DJAG spent the last three years trying to work within its limitations and had agreed upon key areas that it would work on to improve.