Turning Rights Into Justice - Americans Helping Kenyans

[Vinnie From Indy]

Turning Rights Into Justice

By Fran Quigley



ELDORET, KENYA. In a small room at the AMPATH Centre here, Jane nervously eyes the visitors from Indiana, smoothes her long black and white skirt, and launches into her story.

“I am a rape survivor,” she says in Kiswahili-accented English. “I was assaulted by my uncle in March, and I ended up being HIV-positive.” Tears fill her eyes, but she continues to speak.

After the attack, Jane (not her real name) went to the hospital and then to the police. But in Kenya, corruption and gender discrimination cause most sexual assault cases to be dropped early in the process. The prosecutor in Jane’s case first ignored her, and then suggested she abandon the case.

“But then Milkah came to my aid, and she pushed things along in court,” Jane says, gesturing at Milkah Cheptinga and smiling for the first time.

Cheptinga is the legal director of the Legal Aid Centre of Eldoret (LACE), which works in close association with AMPATH, the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated health and poverty program in which Indiana University School of Medicine plays a central role. Cheptinga and volunteer Kenyan lawyers and law students represent low-income clients like Jane for free in cases such as family disputes, gender-based violence, and estate matters.

Some LACE clients have been pushed off their land by greedy in-laws, some have been discriminated against because they are HIV-positive. Others have been left destitute and homeless after going without spousal support for young children. In all these areas of the law, most Kenyans have strong rights on paper yet no hope of enforcing those rights without an attorney.

The Hoosier visitors listening to Jane’s story are part of a delegation of attorneys led by Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Riley and Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis Dean Gary Roberts. Just as AMPATH is a partnership of physicians from Indiana and Kenya, LACE is a growing partnership between the legal communities of Indianapolis and Eldoret.

Lawyers and judges provide the volunteer leadership of LACE here and in Indiana, and students from Moi University School of Law here and IU Law-Indianapolis are assisting in client representation and visiting each others’ law schools. Critical financial support comes from the Indiana legal community, the Rotary Club of Indianapolis, and the Reuben Family Foundation. IU School of Law-Indianapolis provides an annual Master of Laws scholarship to a promising Moi Law graduate who promises to work in the LACE clinic after receiving their IU degree.

In just its first year of operation and with a bare-bones one-lawyer staff, LACE has already represented over 200 clients, and helped most of them find justice.

One of those success stories is Jane’s. LACE leaned on the once-reluctant prosecutor and helped Jane obtain medical evidence, so now her attacker is jailed and facing several serious charges. “I am so grateful to Milkah and LACE,” she says.

Now it is Milkah’s turn to smile. “Once the court sees that someone like Jane has an advocate on her side pushing hard, things start to move the right way.”



This column is online at http://www.indystar.com/article/20091019/OPINION12/910190309/1002/OPINION/Long+road+from+rights+to+justice



Fran Quigley
Visiting Professor of Law
Indiana University School of Law--Indianapolis
530 West New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3225

Also, Associate Director, Indiana-Kenya Partnership/USAID-AMPATH, and Staff Attorney, Indiana Legal Services

Reprinted w/author's permission