Kilifi petty offenders freed over coronavirus

A session at the Malindi Law Courts via telelink on Friday.

The Judiciary in Malindi has adopted release of petty offenders as a way of de-congesting jails in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday, Malindi Chief Magistrate Julie Oseko conducted a court session via video link where she released petty offenders and granted bail to others as a way of de-congesting the crowded Malindi Maximum GK Prison. 

Chief Justice David Maraga had last week announced a scale down of court activities as a precautionary measure to avoid jam at the courts. 

“ICT is the way to go because it reduces costs, is very effective, reduces backlog and is easy to access and a lot of people are now asking for that,” she said.

With two clerks and two prosecutors, Oseko heard and granted amnesty to several offenders.

A probation officer helped in identifying those with lesser offences. 

“So far, we’ve done about 95 files and we’ve released some 30 people to decongest the prisons. We still have some 35 files to go,” she said.