ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND LEGAL INFORMATION THROUGH YOUR SCREEN
One of our main goals under the Justice Innovation Circle is to ensure that Justice Innovators get access to prospective markets and investors for their legal services. This is done through a week of training, followed by a pitching event where the legal companies present their ideas to skillful judges involved to vet the process and give recommendations to how they would improve their pitch thus preparing them to approach prospective investors. Our recent training involved three startups; My Comply Kit, We are More and Legal Compass. It was an interesting session where each company represented by one member, showcased what they do and why they deserved people to invest in them and their services. All these are digital legal platforms and are available online at the touch of a search engine’s button. The need for businesses to incorporate technology into their products has been greater especially this year due to Covid- 19.
My Comply Kit saw the need to educate the public on matters concerning data security. They guide the public on how to manage data subject rights, and assessing plus managing data risks within their organization among other legal services. According to Elizabeth Moturi, an advocate of the high court of Kenya, who works at My Comply Kit, there are 11.7 million cyber-attacks in Kenya every month. Unfortunately, there are still business that do not adhere to or are not knowledgeable about the Data Protection Act. The hefty fines put in place notwithstanding, most businesses are yet to curb this. Prior to the rapid digital move, oil was the most valuable resource, however, data is the current most valuable resource. A clear and urgent wake-up call to companies. This was the niche identified by My Comply Kit, with a solution to offer easy and affordable data protection policies which are professionally written by lawyers to the public. They test companies’ and individual’s ability to manage data, assess their risk and advice on the way forward, including customizing policies based on the company’s customers. They offer faster and cheaper solutions unlike the traditional law firms, who may still not know about the data protection rights.
The other organization that was involved in the training and pitching was We Are More, who offer legal aid to justice seekers by giving them information, access to advocates and mediators. They are creating a change in the legal sector by synergizing law and technology, leveraging on the fact that 1 in 5 Kenyans has encountered a legal problem but is/was unable to follow it up or do anything about it. This statistic, according to We Are More translates to 10 million Kenyans unable to access justice systems. Kagai Murithii who was in charge of the pitching explained that this is because there are not enough lawyers in Kenya to serve citizens, the cost of following up on a suit is too high and there is generally a lack of legal knowledge, especially on alternate dispute resolutions. This creates a fear in Kenyans on handling legal issues. By using technology, We Are More offer fast, convenient and affordable legal aid, with the additional option of receiving the service anonymously. They also offer alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) mechanisms and experienced mediators and advocates to handle the clients.
Legal Compass also motivated by the stressful, costly and complex journey of getting legal services in Kenya decided to offer relevant information to the public which is the first step in offering a legal solution. (Hill Justice Needs and Satisfaction Report- Kenya 2017). They do this through their digital platform, providing easy to understand and accessible credible information from expert lawyers to justice seekers. Faith Njoki, a lawyer with Legal Compass explained that by creatively and uniquely using short videos and write ups, they provide a variety of information for example lists of reputable and credible NGOs, a self-assessment tool to assess a personal justice issue and know the way forward. This is offered free of charge to the public, and they then connect them to a lawyer. Information on their platforms caters to different aspects in the justice system, and not focused on one area. It also translates to a platform that markets other law firms who have partnered with them. It is a great idea that kills two birds with one stone.
Digital legal platforms are slowly translating to being the new mode of getting access to justice and information no matter where you are, as long as you can access the internet. While a common challenge for all of them was investing in technology and marketing, they have a promising future. A study done showed that there were 22.86 million internet users in Kenya in January 2020. The number of internet users in Kenya increased by 3.2 million (+16%) between 2019 and 2020 and Internet penetration in Kenya stood at 43% in January 2020. (DIGITAL 2020: KENYA, 2020) This shows that although there is a significant amount of people in the rural areas who are still not able to access the internet, a good share of the population can, hence these digital platforms are on the right track. This might just be the solution to the gap in the legal system.
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Article by Annabelle Wafula