Kenya launches guiding framework for green justice system

NAIROBI, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) — The Judiciary of Kenya on Wednesday launched a strategic guiding framework to champion the integration of environmental sustainability in the country’s justice system.
Chief Justice Martha Koome said the judiciary is committed to advocating for environmental sustainability in the Kenyan justice sector through upholding the rule of law, protecting rights, ensuring sustainable development, and promoting ecological sustainability.
“Through this strategic guiding framework, we are affirming our renewed commitment toward integrating environmental sustainability into the functioning of our justice institutions,” she said during the launch of the framework in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
The chief justice noted that the justice sector is setting the bar high and serving as an example for other sectors to follow.
She observed that all the agencies and stakeholders in the justice system will integrate green practices into their core and operational functions by ensuring that the goal of environmental sustainability is promoted.
Koome has pledged to conduct civil and criminal justice reforms that support green justice to ensure laws and legal practices actively promote environmental sustainability.
She acknowledged that Kenya’s justice system has, in the past, not always been fully conscious of the environmental impact of its operations.
“At the grassroots level, we will upscale greening interventions through court users committees, bringing environmentally conscious practices closer to the communities we serve,” she added.
The strategy provides specific recommendations for the national council on the administration of justice agencies, covering up-scaling green investigations and arrests, enhancing green prosecution, and institutionalizing environmental safeguards to resolve cases within courts.
The framework also requires justice actors to implement reforms and interventions to improve the administration and access to justice for vulnerable and marginalized people, particularly those disproportionately affected by climate change, such as children, women, survivors of gender-based violence, and young people. ■