New dawn Judiciary rolls out national e-filing to boost efficiency
By KNA, March 13, 2024The Judiciary has launched a nationwide e-filing system, Data System Dashboard and Causelist Portal to support the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) in its research to access justice, improve service delivery and enhance transition of paper work to online access.
Chief Justice Martha Koome (pictured) said the initiative started 20 years ago, while acknowledging serious collaboration and hard work among partners.
“It is a momentous occasion that marks a giant reap in commitment to transform how to deliver through strategic use of technology in alignment with the vision of the Judiciary of Social Transformation Through Access To Justice on blueprint,” Koome said.
She highlighted that the Judicial Vision is to enhance productivity, automate processes, digitalise services and establish a paperless environment, making justice more accessible and reducing the geographical barriers to accessing Justice.
The Judiciary will stop printing of papers from July 1 and replace the resources with ink, desktops and Laptops, she said. Further, Koome urged the Judiciary to embrace the initiative which presents an opportunity to bring greater service delivery.
“Data Tracking Dashboard is a platform that monitors case processing through courts and tribunals through e-filing which will also detect and analyse case adjournment from different courts thus it is a critical tool for evidence tracking,” the CJ explained.
Also speaking during the launch, Deputy CJ Justice Philomena Mwilu said, while the Judiciary remains crucial in regards to capacity of court users, it must also harness the use of ICT since it deals with those dynamic challenges in access to justice.
At the same time, Public Service Performance and Delivery Management Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria insisted that online filing can have exactly the same access to service delivery. Concurrently, in a speech read by Mary Kirima, ICT CS Eliud Owalo observed that aiding the case tracking system, a virtual processing, is one of the solutions since the internal process needs a note taking to be able to serve the customers.
Owalo noted that the Judiciary is in the forefront to ensure they have a single source of truth by sharing information and not to duplicate the data. He said his ministry has ambitious programmes to support digital transformation by digitising Government services and products.