Eastern Zone DCSA

Figure 39: Respondents’ trust of justice providers
covertly involved in high profile cases and influence the decision of
the court to the disadvantage of litigants without access to such
connections 52 . Interestingly, even religious leaders stated that they
trust traditional elders because of justice, honesty and lack of
corruption and prejudice. 53
Figure 40: Respondents’ trust of justice providers (by gender)
The preference across the various justice providers was expressed
at approximately equal rates for both male and female respondents,
suggesting that gender considerations did not influence the
preference of one justice provider over the other (Fig 40).
It was revealed in qualitative interviews that most members of the
community avoid the formal courts because they are costly and
vulnerable to corruption and miscarriage of justice 51 . Particularly,
traditional elders expressed the concern that prominent persons
such as members of parliament, senior police officials, some
traditional elders and military personnel often get overtly, or
51 Business Group, Focus Group Discussion, Eastern Zone, 3 March 2014
The household survey reflected those sentiments, showing that out
of those who had said that they trust the traditional elders the
most, more than half (51%) gave their reason as fair judgments (Fig
41), again without any gender related distinctions.
52 Traditional Elders, Focus Group Discussion, Eastern Zone, 4 March 2014
53 Religious Leaders, Focus Group Discussion, Eastern Zone, 4 March 2014
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