ICJ Kenya Paralegal receives an award at the PSK Annual Paralegal Awards

By Damaris Kemunto and Susan Kendi

The Paralegal Society of Kenya held its 2^nd Annual Summit on 13^th and 14^th of December 2022 at the Tamarind Tree Hotel, Nairobi. One of the objectives of the summit was to award paralegals who have fiercely promoted access to Justice.

The PSK governing Council, recognized Wanjiru Ndung’u as the best overall ICJ Kenya community paralegal at its 2^nd Annual Awards Ceremony. Wanjiru Ndungu is a community paralegal with a key interest in in Human rights, specifically orphans and the vulnerable children. She also works with different support groups especially for persons living with HIV. Wanjiru is a self-made Climate Justice Champion. She leads a group of enthusiasts who promote environmental conservation. She also mentors’ children to plant trees to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Today, the coordinators of our six Paralegal Networks visited ICJ Kenya house. They held discussions with the Executive Director and shared some of their success stories on the work they do at the grass roots. They also proposed on the need for ICJ to empower more paralegals in their respective sub counties. They also emphasized on the need to be trained on the emerging thematic areas such as, Land, Environment and Climate change. They also pointed that land issues are prevalent in their communities and thus result into disputes.

ICJ Kenya undertook to continue supporting the Paralegals so as to achieve its strategic objectives and to enhance Human rights, Rule of Law and good Governance. One of the challenges facing the paralegals is lack of financial sustainability. ICJ Kenya proposed to support the paralegals in resource mobilization drive. ICJ Kenya also promised to empower more paralegals and to gradually extend its network countrywide. We also offered to have more refresher trainings to our network to keep our paralegals appraised with the new laws that are formulated. We also undertook to offer training on the different emerging thematic areas and invite our paralegals to conferences as a learning opportunity. 

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