April 2018

Disputes are as old as the human race and are a common feature of social and legal relations between individuals, corporate and state parties both at domestic and international levels. They call for the establishment of elaborate systems of dispute resolution to accommodate the increasing need for expedition and the desire to resolve them at minimal cost. To this end, we now see innovative international protocols, treaties and domestic legislation designed to offer invaluable alternatives to conventional judicial systems whose adversarial scales of justice often do not tip to the advantage of the litigants taking account of the expense in time and money weighed against the benefits.

Conflict management and dispute resolution has scaled new heights in  Kenya. Indeed, court-mandated mediation has taken root with significant roll-out targeting major cities and urban areas. It is expected that mediation will take the center stage in dispute resolution in a few years. No doubt, we have come a long way, but with a long