Clearing the path to justice

The Christian Legal Education Aid and Research project is important in raising awareness of legal rights in Kenya, writes Andrew Rigden Green

Kenya: magnificent wildlife, white beaches, tropical climate, towering mountains and colourful, friendly people.

This is not just the stuff of tourist brochures and consular departments - it is all true.However, the brochures fail to mention more mundane aspects of life, such as duty solicitors or Citizens' Advice Bureaux - or the lack of them.

We may expect that there is a darker side to the beaches of the tropical paradises we escape to for a fortnight a year, but we can handle it.

We can always fill the Oxfam envelope when it's pushed through the door - if we remember.

Surely Kenya cannot be that bad, can it? It is not Ethiopia or Sudan.True, but that is no solace to people held on charges they don't understand.

It does nothing to help the widow whose brothers-in-law have just absconded with all her possessions.

It does not relieve the employee who was sacked last week after being underpaid for six years, or the tenant whose possessions lie in the street after the landlord found a richer occupier, or the man convicted on fictional charges of possessing heroin who is still in gaol, despite a second appeal, because he refused to bribe the arresting officer.

Legal aid in Kenya is a fantasy of the constitution.

It is limited only to those facing a murder charge, and advocates in Kenya must take a minimum of one of these so-called pauper briefs per year.

But if the charge is reduced to manslaughter this minimal relief is whisked away before the accused has time to shout 'saidia' (help).

Yet even 'lesser' charges, such as treason and robbery with violence, carry mandatory death sentences.The poor quality of justice in the country challenged the Kenya Christian Lawyers' Fellowship (KCLF) to provide the services that are so lacking in the justice system.

Lawyers had been taking up cases on a pro-bono basis for a number of years, but it was acknowledged that this haphazard approach was not an effective way of dealing with the problems facing the poor.

So the Christian Legal Education Aid and Research (CLEAR) project was born.Run by the fellowship, CLEAR provides free legal representation and advice to those who cannot afford the services of a lawyer.

Two full-time advocates are already at work; the plan is to build a network of volunteer lawyers across the country who will be able to take up cases in their local areas.The KCLF works closely with the Lawyers Christian Fellowship in the UK (LCF).

The programme is already fulfilling a key role in allowing the poor to access justice in Kenya.

It is also evident from the number of successes that CLEAR has enjoyed that there is a real need for legal aid.

Often, CLEAR is the only organisation that stands between these people and the most profound injustices.Recently, and as a direct result of CLEAR's actions, some small policy changes have been forced from the local authorities after a judicial review concerning the issue of identity cards to street people.Many of the cases result from a lack of knowledge of the law by the individuals concerned.

People are unaware of their rights, so the strong abuse their positions to the detriment of the poor.CLEAR has started a major educational programme to raise people's awareness of their legal rights.

It includes letting them know when they are entitled to redress - and how they can get it.CLEAR's role is to combine an effective research and education programme with a legal aid system that discriminates purely on financial grounds.

Such a move will demonstrate the total commitment that the KCLF has in seeing real justice done in Kenya.Andrew Rigden Green is a caseworker/intern at the KCLF offices in Nairobi and Mombasa and a trainee solicitor at City-based law firm Stephenson Harwood