GOVERNANCE
The Kenya Judiciary Academy is headed by the Executive Director and three Directors in charge of Directorates
THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The Executive Director provides day-to-day leadership, governance, management and operations and also technical advice to the Judicial Service Commission as may be required.
DIRECTORATES
The KJA has three directorates, each headed by a Director. The Directorates are core in ensuring that KJA delivers on its mandate as follows:
- Providing and coordinating continuous judicial education and training to judges and judicial officers;
- Coordinating the preparation and implantation of the judiciary training master calendar;
- Conducting regional training programmes;
- Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) to determine the impact of the Institution’s training programmes;
- Conducting research and developing draft policies on various aspects of administration of justice as advised and required by the Commission;
- Sensitizing judges, judicial officers and judiciary staff on judiciary policies, guidelines and circulars;
- Coordinating the development and publication of bench books and other publications relevant to enhancing skills and competences of judges and judicial officers, and
- Spearheading on behalf of the judiciary, constructive engagement with and feedback from stakeholders and other arms of government.
JUDICIAL EDUCATION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORATE
The Directorate is headed by a Deputy Director Judicial Education and Curriculum Development who is responsible for providing strategic leadership.
The Directorate has three core functions; It is responsible for the development of programs for judges and magistrates. This is done through carrying out periodic Training Needs Assessment and developing the KJA Training Curriculum from which the programs are developed.
The second function of the Directorate is the implementation of the programs through workshops, seminars and conferences and finally, monitoring and evaluation of the impact of trainings at the Institute.
RESEARCH AND POLICY DIRECTORATE
The KJA Research Directorate was established in the year 2016 by the Judicial Service Commission as a judiciary-based applied research unit. We strive to achieve rigorous standards of quality, objectivity, transparency and research excellence.
Mission
The primary mission of the Research and Policy Directorate is to assist the courts’ management and to enhance the efficiency, quality and functioning of the judicial system by supplying policymakers with the results of objective, empirically-based, analytic research.
Governance
The Directorate reports directly to the Director of the Academy. The Directorate headed by the Deputy Director in charge of Research and Policy who oversees the activities of the Directorate and prioritizes its research agenda. Presently, the Deputy Director is assisted by a Portfolio Lead and Secretariat Team. In the proposed KJA Organisational Review, we will have a Research Manager, Policy Analysts and Legal Researchers to complement the Secretariat Team.
Methodology
Our research combines standard social-science quantitative and qualitative methodologies, together with comparative legal research and in-depth legal analysis of data from all levels of our court system. We strive to develop methodologies specially tailored to the empirical study of judiciaries. Our data is collected using a variety of techniques and sources, such as questionnaires and interviews with judges, magistrates, court administrators and academicians, field-based observations of court processes, and data from the courts’ case management system. In addition, KJA has access to original databases that incorporate information on criminal and civil proceedings.
Research Projects
Our research includes examination and analysis of policies, procedures and rules, as well as evaluation of potential policy reforms. Some examples of our research include, inter alia, the Incidence of Case Backlog and appropriate Criteria for Judicial Performance Evaluation. We have as well developed curricular, numerous training manuals and bench books.
ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIRECTORATE
The directorate is headed by a Deputy Director Administration and Finance. This directorate supports the Judicial Education and Curriculum Development and the Legal Research and Policy directorates to implement their programmes. It handles finance, accounts, human resource, administration, supply chain management, planning and performance management and ICT functions of the institute.