Thread by @mmnjug

Mombasa Resident judge Justice John Mativo has asked @DCI_Kenya to investigate the mysterious disappearances of court files. - @NationAfrica

It cannot be business as usual. How can the court administer justice when the blame on the lost files lies squarely at its doorstep - Justice Mativo

Justice Mativo directed the court’s deputy registrar to write to the @DCI_Kenya in Mombasa and “lodge a complaint regarding the disappearance of the court file” and request an investigation to establish how it happened and what legal action could be taken.

He also ordered that a copy of his ruling be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, saying the findings would have an impact on the criminal justice system.

A court document seen by @NationAfrica indicates that there are many cases where a file is listed for a hearing but it could not be traced for the trial to proceed.

In other circumstances, warrants of arrest have been issued and executed but the files disappeared. This is a common problem in lower courts.

The High Court, the Environment and Land Court and Employment and Labour Relations Court do not experience this problem. The judge encountered the problem of missing files when dealing with an appeal filed by robbery-with-violence convict Patrick Randu Yeri.

Yeri was convicted on June 30, 2010 and sentenced to death. A month later, he appealed. The same day he lodged the appeal, the deputy registrar of the Mombasa court wrote to the chief magistrate seeking the original records, certified copies of the proceedings and the judgment.

This letter was followed up with several reminders to the lower court asking for the records, but all in vain. The records vanished and have not been found.

When the person in charge of registry was summoned to court, he said the file could not be found. After 4yrs of waiting for the records to be traced and provided, Yeri asked the High Court to intervene, lamenting his inability to proceed with his appeal due to the missing files.

Several orders were then issued requiring the deputy registrar to produce the file and supply it to Yeri and the @ODPP_KE so that the appeal could be heard. After eight years of push and pull, Yeri requested the court to acquit him because he could not proceed with his appeal.

Justice Mativo rejected the petition, saying this would set a dangerous precedent in the administration of justice. He said the absence of a trial court’s records does not necessitate an automatic acquittal because this amounts to condoning theft/ disappearance of court files.

Justice Mativo, however, directed his anger at the court registry, noting that the cavalier way it treated Yeri’s matter, including unexplained failures to obey court summons, showed an entrenched and well-calculated move to erect barriers to the administration of justice.

The court process will be seen as lending themselves to oppression and injustice if courts were to tolerate disappearance of its records. How can a fair trial be guaranteed when court proceedings vanish in the hands of those obligated by law to protect them? - Justice Mativo

The disappearance of court records constitutes a serious assault on the integrity of courts that also erodes public confidence in the administration of justice. - Justice Mativo

Last month, the High Court had to acquit a 52yr-old man who defiled and made his niece pregnant after his file disappeared from Kwale court registry. NKK, who had been behind bars for 11 years, secured his freedom after numerous attempts to find the court and police files failed.

The missing court records meant that the man could not appeal against a life sentence imposed on him in 2012 by a magistrate court in Kwale. The judge noted that the convict had the right to appeal but because of a court mistake, he could not do so.

Mombasa Resident Judge Justice John Mativo has called the @DCI_Kenya to investigate the loss of casefiles at the Mombasa court registry that affects the administration of justice bit.ly/2ZWoIdi by @NationAfrica