Effect of Magistrates’ Courts’ Service Charter on Service Delivery in Subordinate Courts in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Improving the delivery of services to citizens is one of the strategic goals of the Kenyan Judiciary. It is in this light that the administration introduced the Magistrates' Courts', Service Charter. This study aimed to examine the effect of this Service Charter on service delivery by Subordinate Courts in Nakuru County, Kenya. Particularly, the study sought to examine the effect of response to complaints, locating missing files, reconstruction of lost files, and receipt of proceedings on service delivery in Subordinate Courts in Nakuru County. The study was guided by the Record Life Cycle Model and the Procedural and Distributive Justice Theory. It made use of the case study design where data was collected from the population of 36 staffs working at the Subordinate Court using questionnaires and54 court users who requested for various services during January 2018 through interviews. Engaging research supervisors evaluated the construct and content validity of the instruments at St. Paul's University. Context validity and reliability were assessed by conducting a pre-test at the Nyandurua law courts. Quantitative data was coded and entered into the statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data collected through open-ended questions were analysed using the thematic technique. Findings revealed that response to complaints (r=.543, p=.000), locating missing files (r= .615, p=.000), reconstruction of lost files (r= .581, p=.000), and receipt of proceedings (r= .523, p= .000) had a significant positive association with service delivery at the Nakuru Subordinate Courts. The findings led to the conclusion that effective implementation of response to complaints, locating missing files, reconstruction of lost files, and receipt of proceedings standards and procedures stipulated in the Magistrates' Courts' Service Charter has a positive and significant effect on service delivery. The study recommends that to improve service delivery, the courts should focus on addressing delays in cases as this was identified as the most frequently reported complaint. The courts should also focus on improving the process of locating missing file as this component of the Service Charter had the strongest association with service delivery.