Judiciary seeking new ways to curb illicit financial flows
Philomena Mwilu is the Deputy Chief Justice and vice-president of the Supreme Court of Kenya since October 28, 2016.
Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu has called for a paradigm shift in the fight against illicit financial flows and other transnational organised crimes.
According to Ms Mwilu, judicial academies and training institutes must be at the forefront of research and development in order to come up with new legal doctrines, thus ensuring legal systems remain responsive to the evolving nature of such crimes.
Speaking in Mombasa, Justice Mwilu further said that the institutions ought to provide platforms for deliberation, debate and dissemination of the new doctrines.
She expressed the judiciary’s commitment to strengthen capacity towards improving effective adjudication on matters relating to the crimes.
Justice Mwilu made the statement as Judiciaries from sixteen African countries pledged regional collaboration and cooperation in combating Transnational Organised Crimes (TOC’s) and Illicit Financial Flows (IFF).
The deputy CJ said there is need to expand avenues, relating to coordination between judicial institutions from different African jurisdictions, through which further learning and improving ideas and strategies towards combating TOC’s can be achieved.
“We must innovate and leverage on technology and e-learning tools to further our trainings and knowledge exchange in this area of law,” said the deputy CJ.
She added that there is need to involve all actors in the criminal justice system to ensure that there is a synchronized and coordinated approach in the fight against transnational crimes.
In a joint communique, the 16 countries committed to develop and maintain a network of judiciaries, coordinated by Judiciary Training Institutes (JTI’s) in the region, that is focused on strengthening and achieving effective adjudication of TOC’s and IFF’s.
They also committed to participate in the development and harmonization of global and regional frameworks, policies and standards on the prevention and combating of transnational crimes.
Dubbed the ‘Mombasa Communique’ delivered after a three-day Africa Regional Judicial Dialogue symposium in Mombasa, the justice sector practitioners also pledged to enhance the capacity of judiciaries to respond effectively to TOC’s and IFF’s.
“Judiciaries, JTI’s, courts, development partners and other stakeholders commit to progressively develop the capacity of courts to respond to TOC’s and IFF,” part of the communique states.
According to the communique which was signed by all the countries represented during the symposium, the justice sector stakeholders also pledged to harness resources to support development capacity of judiciaries to adjudicate the crimes.
The judiciaries and JTI’s also committed to the utilization of technology in court processes with the objective of increasing efficiencies in the resolution of transnational crimes and illicit financial flows.
They also committed to enhancing the effective interpretation and application of legal and regulatory frameworks to combat crimes.
This, the judiciaries said, is by eliminating barriers to access to justice for victims of the crimes and also enhancing realization of justice and restoration to victims through channels provided by law.
