Supreme Court goes hi-tech

The Chief Justice can now attend to people’s grievances countrywide from her office in Kigali after the successful testing of video conferencing technology yesterday. Chief Justice Aloysia Cyanzayire presided over a hearing session involving residents of Rusizi District who had gathered at Rusizi Intermediate Court to present their problems while she was seated in her office yesterday. The technology would simplify the hearing process. Formerly, residents were compelled to travel from all corners of the country to Kigali to present their grievances, a process that was not only costly, but time consuming for both the public and the court. During the session, people presented their cases and obtained immediate responses from the Chief Justice. Most of these were land-related cases, some of which the lower courts had failed to resolve while other residents lacked proper guidance on how to proceed with the cases in the appropriate courts. Euphrozine Uwizeye, a resident of Mururu Sector, Rusizi District, requested the Chief Justice to ensure speedy trial of an appeal lodged against her with the high court over property wrangles. “We won the case in the lower courts, but the litigant is trying to delay the whole process which is why she has appealed the decision in the High Court. I am requesting for a speedy process,” said Uwizeye. Her case was immediately fixed to January next year on a date yet to be determined by the court clerk. Speaking to The New Times, Jerome Habimana, the court’s IT officer, said that after a period of testing, it was now possible to conduct video conferencing without any hitches. He however admitted that they had encountered a few glitches due to low internet connection. The technology is facilitated by the fibre optic internet connection following the rollout of the nationwide optic fibre cable. The cable has increased bandwidth and various institutions can now access high speed internet connection. The use of video conferencing has enabled quick operations among the Supreme Court, Commercial High Court in Nyamirambo and the four High Court chambers in all the provinces countrywide. Ends

National

Supreme Court goes hi-tech