Mr. Wilfred Nderitu was on 3rd August 2017 elected as the Vice Chairperson of the National Council on the Administration of Justice Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms (NCCJR) at the committee’s inaugural meeting held at the Amber Hotel, Nairobi. Among the participants at the meeting was Mr. Edigah Kavulavu who represents ICJ Kenya in the 26 member committee. Mr. Nderitu is a private legal practitioner and a member of ICJ Kenya. He is also a former Chairperson of the ICJ Kenya Governing Council.
The committee members were appointed vide gazette notice Vol. CXIX —No. 81 dated 23rd June 2017. The committee is established as a multi-agency initiative with the overall objective of spearheading the comprehensive review and reform of Kenya’s entire criminal justice system, and overseeing the full implementation of the findings and recommendations of the Audit Report on the Criminal Justice System in Kenya developed by LRF and RODI Kenya. The Committee will examine all aspects of criminal justice reform including but not limited to investigation, policing, prosecution, incarceration, and re-entry. ICJ Kenya is particularly interested in engaging on the committee’s term of reference no 5, to, “Identify and review laws and policies that criminalize petty offences and make recommendations on their declassification and reclassification”.
The agenda of the meeting was to: inaugurate the members of the committee, discuss the ToR of the task force; present key findings of the audit report on criminal justice system in Kenya elect a vice chair of the committee; and to discuss the next steps for the committee. The Chair of the committee, Lady Justice Grace Ngenye, noted that the membership has incorporated all stakeholders in the criminal justice sector. She urged the members to attend meetings and deliver on tasks assigned. Members suggested formation of 3 committees as follows: monitoring and & evaluation, resource mobilization and legal committee. The committee members will conduct a follow up meeting to develop a work plan.
At the end of the meeting, Lady Justice Grace Ngenye expressed her sincere gratitude to ICJ Kenya for funding the inaugural meeting which was well-attended with good initial outputs.
