Access to justice remains a persistent and deeply entrenched challenge across East Africa, despite its explicit protection in international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as in national constitutions and legal frameworks. For millions of individuals, especially those living in poverty, remote rural areas, informal settlements, and other marginalized contexts, justice remains a distant and often inaccessible promise. Structural and systemic barriers such as high legal fees, physical distance from legal institutions, low levels of legal awareness, language, and limited provision of legal aid continue to deny people their right to timely, fair, and effective legal redress.

These barriers disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, including women, children, persons with disabilities, minority groups, and indigent populations. As a result, many are unable to resolve critical legal issues, for example, those relating to land rights, gender-based violence, employment disputes, family law, housing, and sexual and reproductive health rights services. This widening justice gap not only erodes public confidence in legal institutions but also perpetuates cycles of poverty, exclusion, and social injustice.