Are our junior magistrates sufficiently trained to sit on the bench and administer justice?

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) really needs to have a chat with itself regarding the appointment of entry level magistrates. As it is, the entry level into the magistracy is more a training court than a court of justice. Granted, the magistrates are given what one would term easy to dispose cases. The reality though is that justice cares less about the weight or complexity of a case. It must be served with sufficient diligence and knowledge.

There has been great concern amongst legal practitioners with regards to how the junior magistrates tend to conduct the affairs of their courts. Sometimes, on the face of lack of knowledge, and understandably so, given they are at the teething stage of appreciating law at a practical level, they tend to overstep their powers. They seek to intimidate or use powers granted to them by the magistrate courts and in the process play the man and not the ball.