Rwandan judiciary has rolled out the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS) in almost all courts.

Anyone filing a case with the courts — except in some primary courts which lack infrastructure — will now be using this web-based arrangement and will automatically receive feedback through email or SMS.

“Our target is that by next year the system will be used in all courts around the country,” said Itamwa Emmanuel, the spokesperson of the judiciary.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the IECMS was initiated to improve judicial service delivery by reducing delays and transaction costs.

However, even with the system’s accessibility on phone, tablet and computer, and an option of paying court fees with mobile money, the civil society has raised concerns that it might hamper access and hike the cost of justice.

“Communication related to the case is mainly done via email and a good number of justice seekers lack access to the Internet,” said Frank Mugisha of Legal Aid Forum, a civil society coalition.

Though mobile phone penetration in the country is high, few people have smartphones, which are better for submitting case input and viewing submissions by the other party.

According to Mugisha, the fact that this system is only in English also makes it hard for justice seekers who are not able to hire the services of a lawyer to help them file their case.

Of major concern, however, is that the accused and their lawyers cannot access the case file in pre-trial phase because of an invoked secrecy of investigation, making it hard to prepare their defence, thus jeopardising the principle of equality between the accused and the prosecution.

“Only the judge and the prosecution can access the file in the pre-trial phase, while the accused as well as their lawyers can only be aware of the specifics of the case in the courtroom or by soliciting a favour from the prosecution to give them a printout of the main elements of the case,” he lamented.

This system, tested in Kigali courts from January this year, also saw complaints by users about the cost of scanning paper evidence. They said the cost is fixed by private operators who sometimes extort money from citizens. To this, the judiciary says citizens should be ready to meet the cost of going to court.

The system, supplied by US-based Synergy International Systems for Rwf1.3 billion, is online-based and in some courts with unreliable Internet connectivity, it has affected service delivery.

A Rwanda Today journalist was in court when a judge paused hearing for more than 30 minutes because the Internet was weak and he could not access the case file electronically.

“An important project like this cannot be put on hold to wait for the removal of all challenges. Some need to be addressed along the way,” Mr Itamwa said.

Where the system is operational, it completely replaces the manual system.

“If the Internet fails on the very last day of lodging an appeal, the appellant will suffer dismissal not because of his negligence but because of the system,” Muhizi Muheto, an advocate in Kigali cautioned.

With many court users obliged to seek services from private operators mainly in Internet cafés, some also question the confidentiality of cases given that these service providers are not bound by professional secrecy.