Upon the launch of the Family Division, we decided to unwrap the mystery in the Succession Act, so to speak, and made the statutory forms available in the Family Division Registry at a very nominal fee of KSh.5/- per form. This has been a welcome move by many litigants mostly women who can now access justice easily without hiring advocates who charge a lot of money.

Apart from making the statutory forms available, the Kenya Women Judges Association formed a team who went around the Country to train Judicial Officers - i.e. Judges, Magistrates and paralegal staff who handle succession matters. This exercise was completed in August, 2002. Both Judges and Magistrates have the jurisdiction to handle succession matters, though the magistrates' jurisdiction is limited to a certain extent. To date there are about 50 magistrates gazetted to handle succession matters, and they are based in all parts of Kenya where there are no High Court Judges.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is rampant in this Country as it is in many parts of the world. It is therefore necessary to handle Succession matters as quickly as possible so that those left behind, i.e. Aids Orphans do not suffer but get the necessary legal document called a Grant of Letters of Administration (where the deceased died without making a will, or a Grant of Probate (where the deceased left a will). Once such a document is obtained from Court, a deceased person's estate can then be distributed.

Judicial Officers are now well trained in this area and are confident and are able to handle Succession and issue Grants within a period of 3 to 4 months only.

All this training was made possible with funds which the Association sourced from CIDA Canada on behalf of the Family Court Division. The next stage of the project is the computerization of the Family Division Registry in Nairobi.

We are not able to show how many women have managed to access justice easily using the new methods put in place by the Division, but in future, it will be easy to do this as we are now going to be computerized.

The biggest set-back the Division suffers is lack of space. We hope to get more space and therefore more court-rooms and a bigger registry at the former Income Tax building which has been assigned to the Judiciary by the Government.

Despite these difficulties, the work is progressing very well, and we hope to launch the Division in other High Court Registries in the Country in the near future.

This has been one of the most successful projects of the Kenya Women Judges Association.

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