SMS Enhanced Justice: Towards Efficiency and Convenience in Court Cases
Abstract
We seek to bring convenience and efficiency in the process of accessing justice
through the courts of law. A lot of time and money is wasted when litigants travel
long distances to visit court registries, in order to know the status of their cases. It
is also very inconveniencing and frustrating for litigants when they travel for long,
only to find that the judicial officer handling their case had given notice that there
will not be any sitting on a particular date. In this project, we are developing an
integrated solution to these challenges, dubbed FAMALIA. It is a web and SMSbased
application that electronically manages the court cases by the Kenyan Judiciary.
Litigants and interested parties can access the system via SMS. So far, details of
over 28,000 cases have been entered into the system. It is expected that the system
will greatly improve access to justice.
Relevance to innovation. Famalia is an innovative service within the judicial
process in Kenya. It provides a new way of accessing case related information in a
convenient, efficient and timely manner. It is a premier solution not only in Kenya
but also in the region. By using SMS, Famalia provides social impact by being
accessible to even the marginalized people who may not access the courts easily. It is
accessible to anyone who can access a phone. With the judicial process being similar
all over the country and in neighbouring countries, the solution is replicable and has
potential for scaling.