Overview

The Alternative Justice Systems (AJS) is both a philosophical concept as well as a practice for
accessing justice. As a philosophical concept, and consistent with the human rights school of
thought, it is based on the following fundamental ideas: freedom, equality, non-discrimination,
dignity, and equity. All these are contained in the Constitution of Kenya. As a practice for access
to justice, AJS refers to initiatives that can be taken to attain equality and equity for all members
of a particular cultural, political and social identity. For the judiciary in Kenya, AJS has become
a useful avenue of responding to backlog of Court cases. Beyond the pragmatic questions of
numbers and efficiency, AJS is a deeply philosophical approach with far reaching implications to
jurisprudence and human relations.