Activist to CJ Koome: English is a colonial language, allow Kiswahili too
Chief Justice Martha Koome. An activist aggrieved by the Judiciary's failure to embrace the use of Kiswahili as the official language in court proceedings has petitioned the CJ to allow its use in courts.
A rights activist has petitioned Chief Justice Martha Koome to allow the use of Kiswahili in courts. He also wants the president of the Supreme Court to set aside recent directions that have entrenched the use of online virtual court sessions.
Mr Enock Aura, in a demand letter to the Chief Justice, says he is aggrieved by the Judiciary's failure to embrace the use of Kiswahili as the official language in court proceedings, noting that judges and magistrates insist on English.
He says that even in instances where a litigant chooses to use Kiswahili to answer charges or testify in court, magistrates and judges record the testimony in English without seeking the consent of the litigant.
"All cases in Kenyan courts are recorded via colonial language (English). Whenever any litigant elects to answer criminal charges or testify in court in Kiswahili language, invariably magistrates and judges at all levels of courts (and without the consent of the accused or pleader in a case) unilaterally assume the position of an interpreter to translate and copy directly in English the evidence given in court through the Kiswahili language," said Mr Aura, through his lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui.
He claims that it is a violation of one's constitutional rights for a magistrate or judge to record the proceedings in a language that a litigant said he/she does not understand.
"Any Kenyan in such circumstances is ultimately denied a record of the accurate evidence he gives directly in testimony before the court in Kiswahili language. Not the evidence recorded as a translated version," says Mr Kinyanjui in the letter. He has threatened to file a constitutional petition within seven days if no response comes forth from CJ.
He adds the Judiciary also issues its public notices, online and outside court stations, in the English language.
Digital court sessions
Regarding physical services in courts, the lawyer says the High Court Practice Directions gazetted by the CJ on January 11, 2023, will exclude Kenyans from accessing in-person judicial services.
He says the revised directions were neither sanctioned by the National Assembly nor were they subjected to public participation.
In the directions (Practice Directions on standardisation of Practice & Procedures in the High Court 2021), the CJ issued guidelines on the conduct of virtual hearings such as how witnesses should be handled in a virtual court, production of exhibits, recording of proceedings and delivery of rulings and judgments.
But the activist says virtual courts have financial costs to litigants compared to in-person courts.
He adds that though the online court sessions were rolled out as a measure to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the CJ's directive means the courts will be closed again.
"The resumption of normalcy of in-person services across the spectrum of social endeavours in almost all sectors of the Kenyan society, makes the order to restrict access to in-person court services to the public lack legal justification," says Mr Aura.
He also claims that taxpayers will be spending huge amounts of money to maintain empty courtrooms across the country.
"By your directive, you have constructively closed courts again when you ordered that court cases should not be resolved in person but online via the internet. You further directed that all judicial services should be dispensed online using mobile phones that have internet access," says Mr Aura.
