Nairobi — Justice William Musya Musyoka has pledged to streamline existing hurdles in the handling of succession cases if appointed Judge of the Court of Appeal.
Justice Musya said Tuesday when he appeared before the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) that, to realize the vision of social transformation in the country, he has been at the forefront of championing the rights of daughters in the Intestate Succession battles whom he argues have been treated unfairly.
"For some reason, they appear to be just excluded even though the law is very clear that the law should be applied equally to all the children of the deceased persons. I am passionate about that," he said.
His comments come at a time when succession disputes in the country have continued to take long time to be resolved by the courts.
He added that as a way of transformation, the judiciary needs to assert these rights so that daughters of the deceased are treated equally.
Justice Musya said that in a bid to improve the access to justice, his focus has been to sensitize members of his staff to treat all the litigants equally adding that the position of judiciary is to be servants to the members of the public.
"We hold these positions in the exercise of delegated authority from the people and therefore the people we serve are really our masters, all of them regardless of their social status," he said.
While commenting on the challenges in Muslim succession cases, Justice Musya said for people who die Muslims "the law that should be applied to their estate should be exclusively Islamic Law and there is no room for opting for another law."
He however indicated that based on some decisions made by the Court of Appeal give room for "opting out of the Islamic Law as such"
"This is an area that I think requires to be straightened out so that we have a clear position whether there are provisions for opting out," he said.
He added that on his understanding, the Law of Succession Act was designed to apply Islamic Law exclusively to the estate of a person who dies exclusively pointing out that there is room for further developing the law.
