Management of court records in support of administration of justice: the case of Eldoret Chief Magistrate’s Court

Abstract

In Kenya today a lot of complaints have been raised about the performance of the judiciary in administration of justice mainly because of professional malpractice and poor records management practices which include delays, missing files and inadequate resources. The aim of the study was to investigate management of court records in support of administration of justice at Eldoret Chief Magistrate‟s Court with a view to proposing a best practice strategy for court records management. The specific objectives of the study were to: examine through a business process analysis the types of records created or received and how they are managed in Eldoret Chief Magistrate courts; ascertain the professional knowledge and skills of staff responsible for managing court records at the court; find what constitutes administration of justice and relationship between the way court records are managed and utilized in support of administration of justice at Eldoret Chief Magistrate‟s Court; explore the application of new technologies in court processes at Eldoret Chief Magistrate‟s court; identify challenges facing the management of court records and suggest possible solutions; propose a records management strategy for management of court records for good of administration of justice. The study was informed by two models namely; the Records Continuum Model advanced by Frank Upward and the Limited Autonomy and Commission Model of Canada. The literature review focused mainly on the relationship between records management and administration of justice; causes of poor recordkeeping in the judicial courts, records management and good governance, purpose of good records management, judicial reforms and administration of justice, among others. The study used the qualitative research approach. The population sample size consisted of 35 respondents who were purposively, conveniently and census drawn from the members of staff of Eldoret Chief Magistrate‟s Court, litigants and advocates. Face to face interviews, documents analysis and observation methods were utilized in data collection. Content and thematic analysis was used to organize, present and interpret the data; tables were used to summarize respondent‟s frequency and response rates. Key findings of the study were that; most records generated and received were predominantly manual and a few in electronic form, there were poor court records management practices and procedures with no records policy guidelines and frameworks, there was a large number of untrained and unskilled records staff responsible for managing court records at Eldoret Chief Magistrate‟s Court, administration of justice constituted adequate resources, collaboration with stakeholders and that effective records management supports administration of justice. The findings concluded that the lapses experienced in court records management at the court had contributed to the current problems facing administration of justice and due court processes. Recommendations proposed were; availing adequate resources, deployment of trained personnel, develop and implement records management policy guidelines and finally implementation of the court records management and administration of justice strategy proposed in this study.