Village courts ‘lacking integrity’

By DAPHNE WANI
VILLAGE courts in the country do not have a proper place to operate and justice is being dispensed on the run, Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia says.
Sir Salamo said the Government should look after the courts in the village because they dealt with 80 per cent of the cases.
“Village courts have not been operating from designated proper court facilities. The courts have been sitting in any place convenient,” he said.
“The decisions always suffer from lack of integrity and respect.
“I have been asking the government to start building proper court facilities in each village.
Sir Salamo said this would help village court keep their records.
“This will be for village courts to sit and operate from and keep their records.”
He said it was not a good way of dispensing justice. Sir Salamo made this statement in relation to a pilot project initiated by the judiciary in which K300,000 was allocated to build a standard court facility at Boiera village in Central.
He said the judiciary had made a commitment to build the court facility but faced a land issue.
Sir Salamo hoped that the model would be replicated by the government around the country.
He said Attorney-General and Justice Minister Davis Steven was keen on the pilot project and wanted to visit the community in Boiera to talk to them about the importance of the project.