Despite the fact that Bombali District has a magistrate court, the majority of the people in the district rely on the local courts for the administration of justice in the district, mainly because of accessibility, familiarity, cost and convenience in language. Local courts are semi-formal institutions established by the Local Court Act of 1963 with powers to hear and determine all civil cases governed by law where the claim is less than Le250,000 and criminal law cases where a sentence does not exceed six months or fine does not exceed Le50,000. As such local courts have jurisdiction over issues such as marriage, divorce, debt, succession and land tenure[i]. However, the local courts in the Bambali District do not effectively execute their mandates as stated.
This is due to the many challenges they faced. This article seeks to discuss some of the fundamental challenges, which were discovered over a period of monitoring, faced by the local courts in the execution of their functions in the Bombali District. This would be followed by a number of recommendations to help address some of these challenges.
A fundamental challenge in dispensing justice in the local court has to deal with the capacity of the court officials. Most of them can neither read nor write. And even the few who do, mostly the clerks, are themselves limited in their oral and writing skills. It is even worse, where in the absence of the clerks; non-officers of the courts are called to fill the vacuum. The situation is even more pathetic with other officers of the court such as bailiffs and Native Administrative (NA) Police. As such, it has been observed that members and officers of Local Courts in the Bombali district lack the necessary skills and trainings to effectively handle cases brought before those courts. The courts are presided over by chairmen, who are mostly illiterates. In Bombali over 2/3 of the chairmen could not read nor write. The effect of this is that more often than not, cases are poorly handled thereby leading to injustice and general disillusionment with the court system. In addition proper records are not kept of cases brought before these courts and mostly the decisions or judgments of same are the only salient aspects recorded without an analysis of the reason of such judgments. The evidence of parties and witnesses is often recordedhaphazardly. All these undermine the effectiveness of the institution legal mandate to adjudicate upon a body of law that is applicable to a majority of the population in the district.
The problem of capacity largely emanates from the recruitment process of the officials. The chairmen are appointed by the Paramount Chief for a three-year term. But the appointment must be approved by the Ministry of Local government.[ii] Part II(6) of the Local Courts Act of 1963 states that “ A clerk, bailiff and such other officers as in the opinion of the minister the business of the local court may require shall be appointed to every local court by the tribal authority of the chiefdom in which the court is situated,…”. The problem is that most court officers are appointed not on the basis of competence but on the basis of political alliance, and other connections. Consequently, the confidence that was reposed in the customary law system as the temple of justice has continued to erode. Such is the situation currently in the Bombali.
Delays and in some cases the non-payment of salaries to local court officers poses another serious challenge in the dispensation of justice in Bombali District. Some court officers claim that it takes between three months and one year to receive salaries. In sparsely populated chiefdoms such as Makarie Gbanti, Biriwa, where the number of tax payers is not enough to cover the annual salaries of court officials, it is alleged that they received salaries for only two or three months. They are left on their own to fend for themselves for the rest of the year, thus the levying of heavy fines. It is in this context that some court officers are said to be sacrificing their integrity on the altar of survival.
In addition to irregular salaries is the problem of logistics and inadequate personnel which undermines speedy and fair dispensation of justice in the local courts. The court staffs are not only small in number but they also lack the basic logistics such as stationeries, uniforms, transport, furniture to enable them carry out their duties responsibly. In most chiefdoms in the Bombali district, civil and criminal summons, warrants of arrest etc. are delivered verbally either by the bailiff or through chiefdom police who in most cases have no form of identification as most of these officers have not been supplied uniforms for a very long time. This malaise seriously affects parties to a case, as they are the ones who are charged to pay the cost of the court officers. This is done by levying heavy summons fee which in some cases is beyond the reach of the average local court user in the district.
Some courts do not even have the legal document (the Local Courts Act) which gives them the statutory mandate to carry out their functions in the chiefdoms, let alone to ask about newly passed legislations such as the ‘Gender Acts’, the Child Rights Act etc.- not even the abridged versions. The absence of these legal documents in these courts has created room for all kinds of abuse in the procedures and duties and functions of the local courts. Court officials therefore adjudicate matters arbitrarily without due reference to the procedures, often to the detriment of the poor local court users.
Some court houses are used for purposes other than court session. The Local Court No. 1 in the Bombali Shebora Chiefdom for instance could not hold court for nearly ten days in February since it was hosting a workshop. This has increased the number of backlog cases with its burdensome effects particularly on litigants who in some cases have to walk for miles to make it to the court house. Sometimes complainants or accused persons come to court just to find out that the court will not be sitting because the structure is used for other purposes which it was not constructed for.
The technically illegal courts of chiefs is another major challenge with the administration of justice in the local courts in the Bombali district. In practice most customary law cases are dealt with by Chiefs (either Local or Sub Chiefs or Paramount Chiefs), despite the fact that the relevant statute prohibits Chiefs from adjudicating customary law matters. Nevertheless, chiefs preside over so-called “courts” assisted by Councils of elders and go so far as, issuing verbal summonses, imposing fines and imprisoning people. In fact some chiefs even overturn decisions made by court chairmen who are the ones statutorily charged with adjudicating on customary law matters. This is manifestly illegal and has the effect of violating fundamental human rights, particularly vulnerable groups such as young men and women who are often subjected to trumped up charges, “to extract a fine, or to teach them lessons in respect for their elders”.
Despite the newly enacted gender laws increasing the legal status of women and efforts of civil society groups advocating for gender parity, local courts in the Bombali district continue to discriminate against women in the administration of justice. Under customary law, women are restricted in holding an interest in land and inheritance laws which favor men over women means that far fewer women own land or property as compared to their male counterparts which greatly impacts upon their economic status. This is particularly hard on widows who may have to fend for the upkeep of their families. Customary laws coupled with the religious orientation of most court officers in the Bombali district continue to pose a serious challenge to the rights of women in the administration of justice in the local courts.
In the face of the many challenges highlighted above, it is therefore essential that these challenges are addressed so that justice will prevail in the local courts in the Bombali district. The capacity of court officers should be enhanced further by training them in areas such as human rights, the gender acts; their salaries and other emoluments paid on time; they should be provided with basic logistics such as stationary to carry out their statutory duties; they should be provided with basic laws such as the Local Court Act, the Constitution of Sierra Leone and the three gender acts to enhance their effectiveness; and also exert control over and reform of the technically illegal courts of the chiefs. The authorities together with other stakeholders in the justice sector should synergize their efforts in helping to ensure that these challenges are robustly addressed for the effective administration of justice in the local courts in the Bombali district of Sierra Leone.
[i] Govt. S/L Justice Sector Reform Strategy and Investment Plan, 2008-2010
[ii] Ibid pp 16