How Far Are Kenya’s Courts? Distance as a Barrier to Justice in Kenya

Abstract Access to justice for many Kenyans remains a challenge due to the infrastructural and geographic reach of court services throughout the country. This recent development paper presents a spatial proximity analysis that quantifies the distribution of Kenya’s population proximate to the nearest court as an illustrative indicator of access to justice. The results estimate that about 3.5 per cent (1.7 million) of Kenya’s population reside more than 100 kilometres to the nearest physical courthouse, with the average distance to the nearest court per person being 22 kilometres. These considerable travel distances create significant barriers to justice, especially for rural populations, which are further aggravated by limited access to information and low levels of legal literacy. The paper concludes by discussing the current approaches, such as leveraging information and communication technologies, to expand access to court services, improve case information availability and ultimately enhance last-mile justice delivery for Kenyans living in remote regions.