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2009 •
ABSTRACT Restorative justice in African states has gained a significant profile through transitional justice process, but remains very much at the fringes of mainstream practice in criminal justice systems. This article reviews the challenges faced by criminal justice systems in the contemporary African state and the promise of restorative justice from both theory and practice, using Uganda as an example.
The Study examines the challenges of transitioning in The Gambia from the spectrum of the Jammeh Legacy though to the teething problems of President Adama Barrow's administration.
Conflicts are inevitable and a natural phenomenon, which is a cyclic occurrence in a society. Conflict is double-edged; it may become thorny depending on the community’s resilience stability, threshold of the conflict mitigation and management mechanisms in existence. The judicial reform agenda is to ensure equitable access to and expeditious delivery of justice for all in Kenya. Despite the increased court divisions and jurisprudence, improved case management system strategies, enhanced public participation and harnessing of modern technologies initiatives in the Kakamega County courts the reform impact on management of community conflict is insignificant. The study examined the influence of judicial reforms on the management of community conflicts in Kakamega County, Kenya between 2011 to 2015. Specifically, the study established the nature and extent of community conflict, examined the impact of increased court divisions, assessed the influence of improved case management systems’ strategies and assessed the impact of public participation as judicial reform strategies in the management of community conflicts for peaceful co-existence in Kakamega County. Descriptive survey research design and case study were adopted to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data. The study population of 1,020 was selected from which the study sample size of 100 respondents was obtained as representative using Mugenda 10-30% formula taken 10%. Simple random sampling, purposive sampling and quota sampling were applied to source data respective categories of informants 60 offenders, 24 community members and 6 court officials, 6 probation officers and 4 court user’s committee members. Data was collected through questionnaires, interview schedule, observations and focus group discussions and supplemented by secondary data. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20 and coded in themes and by inferential statistics upon which and presented through frequencies, percentiles tables and figures and correlations. Criminal offences ranked high of the community conflicts (80%) with most offenders being male (70%). Most offenders only attended primary education a correlation that showed education and nature of conflict as insignificant (0.228). Increased court division had improved on services at the court. The reforms were an attribute to improved expeditious justice dispensation. Application of traditional justice system was in use by the judiciary (46%). Case processing had improved (63%) but case determination remained slow thus not satisfying to most of the public members (46%). Avenues for accessing information in the courts was at (39%) while public participation was still a challenge except for those matters referred for probation (63%). either for pre-sentence, pre-bail and pre-trial assessment intervention.. Court processes were still complex and expensive. Conclusively is that the nature of community conflict are visible criminal acts whose basis is embedded in civil land –related disputes and male gender are utmost perpetrators. Increased court divisions had partially improved case management and dispensation though with a myriad of challenges equated to none consistent application of the traditional conflict resolution mechanisms by the courts in the County. Public participation in management of community conflict resolution was still in small sips by the criminal justice system stakeholders. The study recommends that community conflicts can be addressed through streamlining coordination and application of the judicial reforms, improve on case processing mechanisms by each court dispensing at least 10 matters than five in a day, invest in modern technologies to improve on case and data management and enhance the use of alternative dispute resolution initiatives that are more restorative in nature to sustain community peace. Ethical consideration was achieved through the researcher seeking for consent from all the participants in the study.
Pakistan Journal of Criminology
Trafficking in Persons, Migrants Smuggling, Illegal Migration and Problems of Deportees in Pakistan2010 •
2009 •
Gondi James (ed.) Reflections on the 2017 Elections in Kenya (International Commission of Jurists – Kenya Section, Nairobi, 2018)
The State of Judicial Independence in Kenya - Reflections from the 2017 Presidential Election Petitions’2018 •
2010 •
The Review of International Affairs
Seeing Sympathy: Remarks on Sympathizing with the Enemy.2010 •
Understanding Africa’s Contemporary Conflicts, edited by Richard Bowd and Annie Chikwanha. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies
L’influence des analyses théoriques de la conflictualité d’après-guerre froide dans la construction de la paix: L’exemple des conflits de la région du fleuve Mano2010 •
2015 •
Mbondenyi Kiwinda et al (eds.) Human Rights and Democratic Governance in Kenya: A Post-2007 Appraisal (Pretoria University Law Press)
‘The Quest for a More Perfect Democracy: Is Mixed Member Proportional Representation the Answer?’2015 •