By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) has presented data from the first ever geospatial map of local courts in Sierra Leone.
The data wee obtained from a study conducted through a collaborative research with a UK-based Sierra Leonean as part of his doctoral research documenting court cases at chiefdom levels and assessing the efficiency, accessibility and the cost associated with the local courts system in the country.
A geospatial map is a geographic imagery containing information used to identify specific locations on earth.
Henry Musa Kpaka, a PhD student at the London School of Economics, mapped 241 local courts across 149 chiefdoms (pre-deamalgamtion figures) as part of his doctoral thesis. The data show how many local courts are in a district, how many local courts are in a chiefdom and how many are functional, as well as the cost of justice in each of the courts covered.
Officials say the data is important to make informed decision in the justice delivery system, which is under pressure to reform.
This development also comes as the DSTI is developing a portal that seeks to capture all of government’s resources across the country.
DSTI’s data engineer, Glenna Wilson, said Kpaka’s work comes in handy for their project.
“Sierra Leone does not have any geospatial map of all these local court systems. Most of the time, you have data like the name and location of the place, but you don’t have longitudes and latitudes and we need those to plot it on the map. This will help us locate government resources,” she told Politico following the official presentation ceremony held in one of the conference rooms at State House.
This research is not just about highlighting the local courts on a map. It is also about identifying the challenges and the cost of justice. Most of this cost has been compounded by a rigid manual system of documentation in the judiciary.
Kpaka said he hoped that his work will help government in increasing the efficiency of the justice system for its citizens. He added that he was convinced that people would feel part of the governance process if their local court system is working for them.
“If people think their court is for them and it is working on their behalf and they are satisfied with its performance, then they will feel happy, because by then they will feel that government is contributing to justice and they will feel the need to participate in governance,” the researcher told Politico.
Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Priscilla Schwartz, was present at the event which also attracted key players in the judicial sector, including the office of Chief Justice and the Directorate of Public Prosecution.
Ms Schwartz spoke on the need to have a synchronized system across the board.
“We do have a case management system with the court. What we do need is to synchronize these systems with the various sectors involved in the judiciary so [that] we will know what we need and where we need it most,” she said.
Kpaka’s research also highlighted the problem between the civil law and customary law of the country, a situation Attorney General Schwartz lamented has been exploited by lawyers.
“Lawyers know they don’t have the right to audience in local courts so they bulldoze their way and take the matter to civil courts,” she said while emphasizing on the need for reforms in the sector.
“Under my watch I will make sure all these corruptions are rooted out. As lawyers we must be ashamed of these practices and we should speak up against them,” she added.
To remedy the situation, the Justice Minister went on to say that she will be pushing for the formal recognition of customary law by the constitution.
“I am trying to make sure we have a formal recognition of the customary law system. The customary law and the civil law are not the same. One is from the English law and the other is informed by our customs,” she said.
Local courts have become increasingly important with an increasing trend of land disputes across the country.
DSTI says this collaboration has highlighted how important academic data can be to development.
This is not the first time DSTI has collaborated with academia. The directorate has already collaborated with Njala University and the University of Sierra Leone.
Wilson says they are open to work with more people in academia in a bid to gather the necessary data for government’s work.
“They can talk to us, they can provide their data. We can collaborate and see how well we can use their data for informed policy decisions, promote the economy and engage in sustainable development,” she said.
© 2019 Politico Online
