The ability of every citizen to get a fair trial under the law is supposed to be the legal foundation of our country. But considering how ineffective and corrupt our judicial system has become, Somalilanders no longer take it for granted that their legal right for a fair hearing in a court of law will be observed. Despite the fact that most Somalilanders have lost confidence in the country’s judicial system, the majority of the citizens of this country (with the exception of a minority of the cases in which settlement is sought through customary laws) are still compelled to go through it for justice, due to lack of another alternative. As a result, more and more people are likely to experience injustice by the country’s courts.

Unless steps are taken now with the view of addressing the present crisis in the judiciary system and finding short and long-term solutions, a situation may arise where people take the law into their own hands. There are two main reasons why many Somalilanders who had experienced judicial injustice still go through the system: a nation-wide awareness that values the country’s hard-won peace and security more than one’s individualistic right to due process and a generally prevailing optimism that things will get better in the future. Still, it is noteworthy that a number of highly publicized murder incidents that were committed in Hargeisa last year, allegedly for revenge as a result of miscarriage of justice, have failed to elicit responses from the authorities that reverse the deteriorating judicial services.

Somaliland’s judicial system is plagued with corruption despite the substantial improvement in staff salaries since 2002. A shortage in the number of properly trained judges and constraints in institutional capacity also inhibit the system from functioning efficiently. These problems will not go away by simply firing corrupt judges as President Rayale did in mid 2002. Some of the issues, such as judicial skills improvement and capacity building, can only be solved through long- term action plans. The most pressing need though is cleaning the judiciary of corruption. However this problem cannot be successfully dealt with in isolation of what is going on in the executive branch which itself suffers from corruption. If President Rayale wants Somalilanders to believe he is serious about reforming the country’s judicial system, he better start setting an example by fighting corruption within his own administration.


 

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