Universal Access to Public Legal InformationPresented at the ‘e-accessibility for persons with disabilities’ conferenceMay 10-11 2012Grand Regency HotelNairobi-Kenya

By Michael M. MurungiCEO/Editor

The National Council for Law Reporting

• a state corporation in the Judiciary

• established by the National Council for Law Reporting Act of 1994

• Led by a Board of Directors chaired by The Hon. The Chief Justice

• Mandate: The official publisher of:

• Judgments and rulings from the superior courts• the Laws of Kenya

 

Vision To be the leading institution in Africa in providing reliable and

accessible legal information to the public.

Mission To provide access to public legal information in order to aid the

administration of and access to justice, the knowledge and practice of law and the development of jurisprudence.

Slogan“Transforming Legal Information into Public Knowledge”.

 

• The Constitution of Kenya 2010, Article 35 - citizen’s right to access public information. • Article 54 - Persons with disabilities have the right

• to access facilities for persons with disabilities that are integrated into society • to access materials and devices to overcome constraints arising from disability

•The Persons With Disabilities Act 2003 section 21 entitles persons with disabilities ‘to a barrier-free and disability friendly environment to enable them to have access to…social amenities and assistive devices’.

The Problem

• Over 10% of the world’s population suffers from a variety of disabilities.

•4.6% of Kenyans experience some form of disability. More disabled persons reside in rural areas than in urban areas.

• 65% of persons with disabilities regard the environment as a major problem in their daily lives – ie the way they interact with the world and the way the world interacts with them

(The Kenya National Survey for Persons With Disabilities – National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development, March 2008).

The creation, management and deployment of Kenya’s public legal information in Kenya:

• not predicated on a standard or technology platform that makes the content universally accessible.

• available only in the English language often expressed in technical terminology.

• not available in Swahili, the national language, a language recognized by the EAC, AU, UN

•does not easily lend itself to current and emerging assistive technologies for accessing the information.

What we are doing about it

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