Legal aid campaign targets 136 wards in Coast Region

KIBAHA: ABOUT one million residents of Coast Region are expected to benefit from legal services in the second phase of the Mama Samia Legal Aid Campaign (MSLAC) scheduled to be launched on Wednesday in the region.

Assistant Director of the Legal Aid Compliance Section in the Ministry of Constitution and Legal Affairs, Mr Osborne Paissi told Journalists yesterday that the campaign is expected to reach 136 wards in the region.

“In this phase, we will focus on reaching all 136 wards in the region. This exercise will go hand in hand with, among other things, conducting training for marriage reconciliation boards at all levels,” he explained.

Mr Paissi further said that in the first phase, a total of 200,000 residents were reached, which is equal to 9 per cent of the total population of 2.24 million people in the region.

In this phase, he said, the aim is to reach 60 per cent of the population, which is about one million people. For his part, Regional Commissioner, Mr Stanslaus Nyongo, said the campaign aims to bring legal aid services closer to citizens, educate them about their rights and responsibilities, and help them find solutions to the legal challenges they face.

He said that through the implementation of the campaign, residents will continue to be educated on issues of ownership and resolution of land disputes, marriage, inheritance and wills, human rights, genderbased violence and resolution of their disputes through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms.

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“Through the campaign, residents will get the opportunity to receive legal advice and legal aid services, present their challenges and get education on various legal issues including matters of marriage and divorce, inheritance and wills, land and the importance of alternative dispute resolution,” he said.

Moreover, during the campaign, residents with cases in court or in justice delivery organs will get advocacy services through Private Advocates or State Attorneys authorised to provide free legal aid services. He appealed to residents to use this great opportunity to get free legal aid services.

“Through this campaign, the following services will be provided free of charge to residents, which are legal advice, as well as registration services for human life events including registration of birth and death certificates through the Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA)”, he said.