Judicial proceedings in Kenya are notoriously slow. This fact poses a significant impediment to economic development because it operates as a barrier to investment in the country and prevents the prompt resolution of commercial disputes for parties within Kenya, leaving them unable to redeploy their assets in an efficient manner. There are four principal reasons for the slowness of legal proceedings:
· an inadequate number of judges and magistrates;
· inadequate compensation levels for magistrates and court staff;
· adherence to internal operating systems by the judiciary which may once have been adequate but which have become dysfunctional; and
· a legal culture which tolerates delay.
The BizCLIR scores show that Enforcing Contracts is one of the weakest areas studied in this report. All aspects of the system, the courts as implementing institutions in particular, are in need of dramatic reform.
