BY WILLIS OKETCH
Coast,Kenya:The proposed Court of Appeal in Coast Province will now be rotational and not stationed in one town, according to an agreement struck between Coast-based lawyers and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
The lawyers had opposed proposals by JSC to establish the first ever Appeals Court in Coast province in Malindi citing security, practical and logistical concerns and had threatened to challenge the Malindi location in court early this month.
But following discussions between the two parties on Friday last week, the stalemate appears to have been broken.
LSK branch chairman Erick Nyongesa (pictured) told The Standard that members of the local Law Society of Kenya (LSK) met JSC in Mombasa over the issue and resolved that cases filed in both Malindi and Mombasa would be heard on rotation. Nyongesa said under the agreement, Court of Appeal judges would shuttle between Mombasa and Malindi to hear cases filed in Malindi and Mombasa for appeal.
“We had a very good meeting with the committee on the decentralisation of the Judicial Service Commission and agreed that cases for appeal in both Malindi and Mombasa will be heard by judges in the very station where the case has been filed” said Nyongesa.
Before the meeting, LSK Mombasa branch members insisted that Court of Appeal judges be stationed in Mombasa as it was risky to move appellants between Malindi and Mombasa.
Nyongesa argued early this month that the movement of prisoners shuttling for their appeals from Mombasa to Malindi was not viable because some inmates with possible links outside the prison could be a flight risk.
