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The Judiciary has notified court users and other concerned Kenyans over an intermittent outage affecting the e-filling system and caunselist portal.

In a notice on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, the Judiciary maintained that it had deployed a team of technical team to fix the intermittent outage error.

“We are experiencing a system intermittent outage on our e-filing system and causelist portal. The technical team is working around the clock to ensure full system restoration,” the Judiciary announced.
In the notice, the Judiciary which is led by Chief Justice Martha Koome did not reveal the cause of the outage affecting the e-filling system and caunselist portal.

Alternative

Following the system error, the Judiciary advised those with urgent appeals and time-bound pleadings to file their applications through their respective court emails and copy them to the office of the Deputy Registrar.

“For applications under Certificate of urgency and time-bound pleadings, forward the same through the respective court stations’ email addresses and copy to [email protected] for processing,” the Judiciary explained.

The third arm of government expressed regret on the system issue and appealed to court users to exercise patience as they fix the system.

“We apologize for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience and understanding,” the Judiciary added.

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— The Judiciary Kenya (@Kenyajudiciary) May 21, 2024

Why e-filling was introduced

The launch of e-filing marked a significant milestone in the Kenyan Judiciary’s automation and digitisation agenda. The adoption of the system was touted to drive efficiency in the process of justice delivery.

The journey of e-filing in the Kenyan judiciary started with the launch of e-filing in Nairobi in June 2020 after many previous false starts and initiatives that did not pick up. As at July 8, 2020, a total of 284 cases had been filed in some Nairobi courts through the e-filling system and over Ksh3,836,518 collected as court fees, fines and bail.

Chief Justice Koome further spearheaded the launch of e-filling in all the courts countrywide with the number of cases uploading hitting a level high.

“I launched e-filing for all courts countrywide, a Data Tracking Dashboard and Causelist Portal marking a giant leap in our commitment to transforming how we deliver justice through the strategic use of technology, in alignment with the Social Transformation through Access to Justice (STAJ) blueprint of the Judiciary,” Koome stated in March 11, 2024.

“Our goal is to enhance productivity, automate processes, digitise services, and establish a paperless environment, thereby making justice more accessible and reducing the geographical barriers to accessing justice,”she added.

E-filing allows for remote case filing, offering a convenient platform for legal practitioners and the public to engage with the justice system online, thereby improving accessibility, efficiency and inclusivity, Koome further explained.

Despite the efforts to digitise the court process, the Judiciary has continued to face numerous outages affecting the e-filling process. However, the Judiciary is at an advanced stage of fixing the issue.