| dc.description.abstract | This study set out to assess the nature of non-cooperation by witnesses during trial of criminal cases, a case of Kiambu Law courts. The main objective of the study was to establish the nature of non-cooperation by witnesses during trial of criminal cases in Kenyan courts. The study was guided by the following specific objectives:- to establish the magnitude and typologies of criminal cases that were terminated due to non-cooperation by witnesses at the Kiambu Law Courts between the years 2008 and 2010; to establish personal and socio-economic characteristics of non-cooperative witnesses; to identify specific factors that account for noncooperation by witnesses during the trial of criminal cases and to elicit remedial measures for ensuring cooperation by witnesses during the trial of criminal cases at the Kiambu Criminal Courts.
The units of observation were the court registers, court files, witnesses and the key informants. The unit of analysis was pertinently, the problem of non-cooperation by witnesses during trial of criminal cases at Kiambu Law Courts. The study was qualitative and purposive in nature, and adopted an exploratory study design. 30 witnesses (main respondents) and 10 Key informants that include; Magistrates, Advocates, Prosecutors, Police investigating officers and Court clerks were also interviewed.
The study found that, a total of 272 serious cases were terminated between the years 2008 and 2010 due to non-cooperation by witnesses during trial. Terminated cases cut across all typology of criminal cases. The magnitude of criminal cases terminated was thus very high. The Study identified six major factors responsible for non-cooperation by witnesses during trial of criminal cases. These include; Intimidation, Lack of trust in Law enforcement, the adversarial nature of the trial process, lengthy trial process due to frequent adjournments and community ties. Other factors include personal and socio-economic characteristics of individual witnesses such as age, gender, social class and status.
The following major recommendations were suggested to planners, policy makers and administrators of Criminal Justice System There is an urgent need to fully operationalize the Witness Protection Act (2006) and establish VictimlWitness Agency and Programs that would factor in Emergency Relocation and Support of intimidated Witnesses. Where appropriate a specific contact person should be on call 24 hours to mitigate on victim or witness intimidation concerns.
To build trust in the Agencies of the Criminal Justice System, the government should criminalize the sharing of confidential court reports with criminals and weed out corrupt police investigating officers. The study suggested the establishment of cooperation between agencies of the Criminal Justice System and other State Corporations with related agencies e.g. Communication Commission of Kenya (C.C.K) and Safaricom Limited.
Such cooperation should aim to monitor and recover all phones sneaked into prison unnoticed. The study also recommended that Kenya's adversarial model of trial be replaced. To avert lengthy trial processes through frequent adjournments, the study recommended an Increase of government experts so that processing of expert reports (such ballistic reports and government chemist reports) can be prompt in order to expedite trial processes. | en_US |
