Dishonest lawyers and insurers are some of the hurdles that litter road to compensation

Accident victims are losing out on compensation owing to a sluggish system that is often open to corruption.

Ill-prepared lawyers, misplaced files, and a thin staff complement of judicial officials, all conspire to deny hundreds of victims of accidents (roads and industrial) a livelihood.

Yet, even when the courts finally deliver judgment, the award - the whole or part of it - risks being swindled by dishonest lawyers and insurers. And as if that is not enough, not much is left after lawyers take their fee.

The Advocates Complaints Commission, the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission and a host of human rights groups say they have been inundated with complaints from frustrated individuals unable to get compensation for injuries sustained on the roads and in factories. They don't know where to seek help.

"We have had 36 cases since last year, mostly involving lawyers who won't release money to clients," says Boniface

Wanyoike, a human rights' programme officer with the Kitale Catholic Justice and Peace Commission.

"Lawyers deny having received any compensation money even when insurers say they have paid."

Some accident victims - including half the cases in Kitale - have died before receiving a penny. Others have waited for 15 years only to learn that their lawyers bungled their cases.

A survivor of a road accident that claimed 26 Kenya Canners Ltd employees in 1987 is still waiting for compensation - 21 years on.

His case comes up in court today, but even if he is finally compensated, it will be a bit too late as his children dropped out of school because his inability to earn a living after the accident.

Mr Isaac Jomo Odinga has spent Sh750,000 trying to get compensation from a cooking oil manufacturer in Thika for the death of his younger brother, Albert Zedi whose decomposing body was found "hidden in a heap of cartons at the factory's store", according to a police report.

He had "an injury on the left leg and blood was oozing from the mouth."

Six years later, the family has almost lost hope.

"The police, court officials and lawyers are hardly cooperative. I have written letters to the Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions and Police Commissioner but nothing is forthcoming," says Mr Jomo, a tailor in Thika.

"I have even been threatened at gunpoint to drop the case. I cannot even access the court files."

The widow and children are looking up to him to help them get compensation. "They have nothing," he says.

A plodding judicial system has far-reaching consequences on the administration of justice. Files and exhibits disappear (fraudulently or otherwise) without trace, plaintiffs die before their cases are finalised, and insurers and lawyers conspireto rip off unsuspecting victims.

This is a system which has denied people their livelihood, in which accident victims have to wait for a half a generation to get compensation - and if it does materialise, a sizeable chunk goes to lawyers' legal fees. It is a system that leaves victims helpless.