Abstract:
English is used as the official language of the court in Kenya. However, in a multilingual setting where contact between different linguistic communities is unavoidable, interpretation services are provided for those who do not understand English. The interpreter is supposed to bridge the linguistic divide. The purpose of interpretation is normally to communicate the intended information from one language to another. The process of interpretation. however, involves not only linguistic factors, but also extra-linguistic parameters whereby ‘message bits’ are lost or the whole message may be distorted. Such alterations may have an impact on the legal messages to the complainant or the defendant, leading them not to understand the ultimate judgments hence violating their human rights. The study identified and described interpretation and translation problems in the court. The origin of interpreter errors were also described. The study was based on the hypothesis that there were interpretation and translations problems in courts and these errors had an origin. The study was guided by Nida’s theory of translation which says translation is a scientific process that requires one to preserve intended information from source language to target language. Data was collected by tape-recording nine court interviews from the complainant and the defendant where interpretation was done. identified Interpreted utterances from the complainant and the defendant formed the data. In addition, nine court clerks who are interpreters and nine persons forming the court audience were selected purposively and interviewed regarding the interpreted utterances to supplement on the data that was transcribed. The data elicited was analysed qualitatively to arrive at inferences and conclusions. The study revealed that there were various interpreter errors in the interpreted proceedings that included omissions, additions, cultural barriers and distortion. The errors arose from the fact that the interpreters failed to understand their defined roles and procedure of ethics. There is a need to train them courses in court translation and interpretation for effective skills, competence in language and their role as court interpreters in the administration of justice. The study findings would contribute to the study of linguistics specifically in the area of socio-linguistics in translations and interpretation. The study is useful to the Law institutions and academicians.
