Chief Justice Martha Koome on Wednesday opened the first annual colloquium for Magistrates and Kadhis in three years.
The convention was last held before the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.
Koome said the convention provides a platform to share experiences from various court stations and tackle emerging challenges.
"I recognise that Magistrate and Kadhi Courts are the actual ‘doorways’ of justice, with 85 per cent of the Judiciary’s caseload and interaction for most litigants with the justice system taking place in these courts," she said.
Koome urged the courts to support innovations that improve judicial performance.
She said this could involve embracing court-led active management of cases, early identification of issues for resolution, promotion of diversion and alternative avenues for dispute resolution.
The Chief Justice noted that the vulnerable person's priority card system deployed in Engineer Law Courts has become the gold standard for responsive and people-centred delivery of service.
She said there is a need to shift focus from interlocutory and technical applications to the merits of cases, the application of a ‘no adjournment policy’ once matters have been fixed for hearing and leveraging technology in service delivery.
"We are focused on removing formal, informal and systemic barriers to access to justice," she said.
Koome said the goal of widening access to justice will only be attained when the judiciary has in place an efficient, cost-effective, accessible, expeditious, and fair system of delivery of justice.
She added that priority areas under the Social Transformation through Access to Justice vision of the Judiciary include clearing case backlog and improving access to justice by increasing the avenues for accessing justice.
"We also are focussing on enhancing public confidence in the justice system by strengthening our internal and external complaints mechanisms and improving co-ordination and synergy of actors within the justice sector," she concluded.
