Districts get professional bailiffs

The country needs more professional court bailiffs so as to dispose of all pending court cases, the Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, has said.Karugarama made the remarks yesterday as he presided over a ceremony to swear in 30 bailiffs mandated to work in districts.The ministry, in its performance contracts signed before the President, committed to have all pending court decisions executed by the end of this year.However, the minister said more efforts were needed from the bailiffs to reduce this backlog in the districts.“Litigants need their cases settled in a fair manner and they are eagerly waiting for your contribution,” Karugarama told the bailiffs.“The government wants every citizen to have access to quality universal justice, and, therefore, seeing their cases being delayed is not fair”.The sworn in bailiffs who have been practicing legal officers will help non-professionals who have been facilitating the execution of court verdicts.Normally, local leaders have the mandate to execute court orders.Karugarama said the development to introduce both professional and non-professional practitioners will enhance efficiency, and this has been enabled by the amendment of a previous law which had loopholes in the execution of judgments.Welcoming the new responsibilities, Fulgence Kabalisa, a bailiff who will work with Kicukiro District, said he would first assess the number of pending cases in the district to design a roadmap of how to deal with them.Meanwhile, Karugarama said that currently, there are few new cases that are being filed before courts, and he attributed this to various initiatives introduced to help residents settle conflicts from their respective communities.Among them is community mediators (Abunzi), a traditional conflict resolution set-up which has handled thousands of cases which would have otherwise been taken to courts.A survey conducted recently by Transparency International-Rwanda on behalf of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), indicates that 75.9 per cent of people who refer their cases to local mediators have full trust in the committees.The survey indicates that public satisfaction with the mediators’ activities to provide justice stands at 76 per cent with their integrity is rated at 81.5 per cent. The overall performance stands at 77.2 per cent.

National

Districts get professional bailiffs