Ombudsman critical to Kenya's judicial reforms

By Pravin Bowry

NAIROBI, KENYA: Most Kenyans begrudge the unnecessary red tape experienced in their daily lives. To say that an average Kenyan’s life in dealing with public institutes and government bodies is a frustrating one is an understatement.

Be it the police service, city council, service providers such as electricity and water departments, or dealing with various state agencies, getting mundane complaints and even accounting blunders resolved is time consuming and hundreds of man hours are wasted daily. More often than not Kenyans opt for shortcuts flavoured with blatant acts of corruption.

Threats of legal action mean very little, legal cases are expensive and not affordable or advisable.

Pleasant surprise

Complaint procedures —in Kenya mostly indifferent, disregarded, weak and lukewarm — ideally should allow customers who feel that service providers have failed to achieve satisfactory standards to approach them with details of their shortcomings. In general, in most common law countries such procedures and policies are provided to dissuade individuals from taking further action, possibly of a legal nature.

The intention is to resolve disputes as early in the life of a complaint as possible, with a minimum of formality and resources. An indicator that things are changing and are on the move came to my attention recently when I had a most pleasant surprise when I received a letter from the office of the Director of Public Prosecution’s “Head of Complaints and Compliments Unit”. How refreshing and ingenious!

By all means one is entitled to give barbs, but greater publicity to the setting up of the Unit will have helped and next time Kenyans who feel that the DPP has done a good job should drop a line to him for a job well done. Similarly, the Judiciary customer service has now set up an in- house Judicial Ombudsman who receives and deals with mybrid of complaints in the Judiciary and though presently slow in resolving issues, acknowledges complaints on line.

There is a Constitutional and Statutory Commission on Administrative Justice – or the office of the Ombudsman - which has the mandate and duty to investigate and conduct investigations in state affairs, maladministration, complaints of power, unfair treatment, injustice and unlawful, oppressive and unfair or unresponsive official conduct with the public sector.

The Executive Director and the Committee of four dealt with these complaints but Kenyans must learn to exploit the mandate of the Ombudsman by being more pro-active.

The efficiency in complaint resolution by the Ombudsman is yet to be tested but there is great need for the Ombudsman to let Kenyans know not only of its existence but also its achievements and failures.

Mechanisms to deal with complaints against the Registrar of Companies, the Land Office, the immigration Department, Kenya Revenue Authority, Registrar of Motor Vehicles, electricity, water authorities will circumvent the agency of dealing with minor matters enabling it to concentrate on bigger problems.

Professional associations – notoriously the Advocates — have legal Complaints Commissions. The AG’s office had the Advocates complaints commission with hundreds if not thousands of complaints pending and undealt with. The process of complaining against an Advocate and getting relief can be long and a painful one. The AG has hardly addressed the concerns over the Law Society of Kenya’s perceived inability to discipline its errant members.

The Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board too has been unable to address the complaints of unprofessionalism in its ranks and prosecutions for malpractices and even criminal negligence are unheard of.

The Medical Board for example is aware of hundreds of abortion clinics but yet has had no muscle to combat the problem despite complaints from individuals and various bodies. Another area in which the complaint procedures has become standaralized is where members of public can complain against the police through the Independent Police Oversight Board.

The primary functions of the Deputy Director include investigating any complaints related to disciplinary or criminal offences committed by any member of the National Police Service.  NPS on its own motion or on receipt of a complaint can monitor and investigate policing operations affecting members of the public; review and audit investigations and actions taken by the Internal Affairs Unit of the Service in response to complaints against the Police and reviewing the patterns of police misconduct and the functioning of the internal disciplinary process.

Internet usage is increasingly prevalent. The volume of internet information explaining people’s rights and dispute resolutions process is also expanding rapidly. It is no surprise that growing number of people are turning to the internet to obtain information about legal rights. Commercial, charitable and professional websites also supply free general legal information along with various forms.

Citizens in Kenya need to learn how to get quick out of court relief from government business and services providers who equally need to be more responsive to the complaints made. Making a complaint is fine, but getting a final solution, resolution or redress is what will ease the burden of living. Learning to forcefully complain and to whom with diligence and persistence perhaps will make Kenya a better country.

On the social media the trend to name and shame the culprits is also reaping fruits.