FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What is legal aid?
A: Legal Aid is the provision of legal services to persons who cannot afford the same such as the poor, marginalized and vulnerable groups
Q: What are Legal Aid Programs?
A: These are programs that provide free or low-cost legal services to individuals who cannot afford a lawyer. Such programs may include legal representation, mediation, and other forms of legal assistance.
Q: Which types of cases does legal aid cover?
A: Legal aid services are provided in both criminal and civil cases. Civil cases include: family and property disputes, succession, employment matters etc. However, under the Legal Aid Act 2016, the following are excluded from legal aid: artificial persons, matters of tax, debt recovery, bankruptcy and defamation.
Q: Who covers the cost of legal aid?
A: The Legal Aid Act 2016 established a Legal Aid Fund that pays for remuneration of legal aid providers and related expenses. The civil society too provides financial support, whereas the legal practitioners do occasionally offer legal aid on a volunteer basis.
Q: What is the role of government in providing legal aid?
A: The National Legal Aid and Awareness Policy 2015 and the Legal Aid Act 2016 put primary responsibility for provision of legal aid on the government. The aforementioned Policy and Act aim to bring all the legal aid providers together for easy coordination and quality assurance. In addition, the government is mandated with upholding constitutional rights of all Kenyan citizens, notably, access to justice. As a result, the government is not only expected to create awareness about legal aid, but should also establish a structured and sustainable national legal aid scheme in the country.
Q: What does the constitution of Kenya provide about legal aid?
A: The Constitution provides that every person is equal before the law with the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law. The Constitution further provides for the right to access to information, access to justice and rights of arrested persons. Article 50 (2)(h) provides that every accused person has the right to have an advocate assigned to them by the State and at the States’ expense if substantial injustice would otherwise result, and to be informed of this right.
Q: What are Community Legal Clinics?
A: These are Community-Based Organizations that offer legal advice and assistance to individuals who cannot afford the services of a lawyer.
Q: Who are mostly involved in providing legal advice in Community Legal Clinics?
A: The clinics are often staffed by volunteer lawyers, law students, or paralegals.
Q: Who are Paralegals?
A: These are individuals who have been trained to provide legal advice, assistance, and representation to individuals who cannot afford a lawyer. They are trained on basic legal principles, legal research and writing, and advocacy skills. In addition, we have Community Based Paralegals (CBPs) who operate directly within communities, often serving as volunteers.
Q: What are human rights?
A: These are rights that one acquires by being alive. All persons have the right to full enjoyment of essential rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to equal Civil, Political, Economic, Cultural, and Social opportunities.
Q: What are Civil Rights?
A: These rights are absolute and must be provided in any civilised society, i.e. they are rights that one obtains by being a legal member of a certain political state. They are personal rights guaranteed and protected by the constitution of any civilised state.
They are expansive and significant set of rights that are designed to protect individuals from unfair treatment, i.e. they are the rights of individuals to receive equal treatment in a number of settings such as education, housing, employment, among others. These rights also deal with legal protections such as the right to vote.
These rights include: the right of protection from unfair/unlawful treatment or discrimination such as discrimination in employment or the discrimination against people living with disabilities, among others; right to a fair trial; right to government services; right to use public facilities; right to a public education, etc. Under these rights we have: Civil Liberties and right to equality/civil equality.
Q: What are Political Rights?
A: The term ‘political rights’ encompasses the traditional human rights, such as life, liberty, security of person and freedom of expression.
These are rights that involve participation in the establishment or administration of a government. They are given to the citizens by the state through ensuring that every citizen has a right to vote irrespective of the religion, colour, caste and language differences.
These rights include: the right to condemn the policies and actions of the government; the right to equality before law and the right to participate in the political process such as: the right to vote and elect representatives, the right to contest elections, the right to form political parties or join them, the right to hold public office; the right to petition; the right to criticise; the right of access to the same processes and opportunities; the right to natural justice (procedural fairness) in law, such as the right of the accused, including to right to fair trial; due process; the right to seek redress or a legal remedy; and the rights of participation in civil society and politics such as freedom of association.
Simply put; Civil and Political Rights is a class of rights that protect individuals’ freedom from infringement by governments, social organisations and private individuals. They ensure one’s ability to participate in the civil and political life of the society and state without discrimination or repression. Simply put, they refer to freedoms to do something within a society.
These rights include: the right to freedom of religion, right to life, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and fair trial. They do not give people anything tangible and can only be enjoyed if the state refrains from interfering with individual rights.
Q: What are Economic Rights?
A: These are the rights that ensure the entitlement of basic needs such as food, shelter, among others. Everyone has economic right to associate with and combine their interests with others. The characteristics of economic freedom are typically thought to include the right to acquire, own, use and inherit property as long as one is guided by the rule of law.
The right to exchange goods and services in open markets, at home and internationally in accordance with the law also fall within this category.
These rights include the right to: property, earn a wage, choose your own work and change your employment, work in a safe condition, among others.
Q: What are Cultural Rights?
A: The term ‘cultural rights’ refers to a claimed entitlement on the part of identity groups. These kinds of entitlements, i.e. cultural rights, are not vested in individuals. They are typically based on groups such as religion, ethnicity, ethnic minorities and indigenous societies, language or nationality and implies some form of political or legal recognition. Such groups should be able to express and maintain their traditions or practices.
These are rights related to art and culture, both understood in a large sense. The objective of these rights is to guarantee that people and communities have an access to culture and can freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
All cultures are brought up differently, therefore cultural rights include a group’s ability to preserve its culture, to raise its children in the ways it forebears, to continue its language, among others. In addition, the group also have the right to have their indigenous technologies being recognised alongside science in the development of the nation.
Q: What are Social Rights?
A: These rights arise from social contracts. For example, James Madison advocates that a right such as trial by jury arose neither from nature nor from a constitution of government, but from reified implications of social contract.
Social rights concern basic necessities of life and how people live and work together. They are based on the ideas of equality and guaranteed access to essential social and economic goods, services and opportunities.
These rights are necessarily contingent on a society’s level of economic development, thus, are key in improving the lives of individuals and communities.
These rights include: right to: an adequate standard of living, affordable housing, food, education, an equitable health system, and social security based on respect, not sanctions; equal opportunities for all; jobs, club membership and promotions.
The right to life covers within its ambit the right to social security and protection of the family.