Judiciary signs Sh10bn loan agreement for new courts

Reforms in the Judiciary have received a $120 million (Sh10 billion) boost from the World Bank.

The money will be used to build modern courts over the next three years in a move expected to reduce the cost of accessing justice.

The department is expected to build a magistrate’s court in each of the 285 districts and a high court in each of the 47 counties in the next 10 years.

Also read: Treasury counts on Judiciary to unlock bad debts

The money under the Judicial Performance Improvement Project (JPIP) will be disbursed from early next year when the construction is expected to begin, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga said on Friday while releasing the first report card for the Judiciary.

Dr Mutunga said funding from development partners would be a major boost in transforming the Judiciary in view of inadequate allocations from the Treasury.

“The Judiciary is grossly underfunded and under-prioritised despite the fact that it is a substantial revenue earner to the Exchequer,” he said.

Dr Mutunga said negotiations on the project were completed last month, allowing the Sh15.9 billion allocated to the Judiciary in the current financial year to be used on administrative expenses and “other purposes necessary for the discharge of institutional functions.”

“The Judiciary has now secured not only the operational independence but also its financial autonomy in discharging its institutional functions,” said the CJ during a ceremony at the Supreme Court attended byVice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Kenneth Marende.

He said the Judiciary envisaged a future where its funding would entirely come from the national Budget in order to promote accountability.

Although allocation to the department has grown nearly eight-fold from Sh2.1 billion in 2007, it only got 0.5 per cent of the national Budget compared to 98.2 per cent for the Executive and 1.3 per cent for the National Assembly in 2010.

According the judicial annual financial report released alongside Dr Mutunga’s blueprint, the allocation for development expenditure increased by 138 per cent between 2011 and 2012 compared to 1.4 per cent in 2010.

The money will be used to expand new court stations, rehabilitate existing one and install information and communications technology (ICT).

The improvements are expected to help reduce the backlog of cases that have plagued the Judiciary.

A recent survey found that 16,907 new cases were filed in the last two years, reflecting growing confidence in the Judiciary.

Dr Mutunga said the backlog in the Lands and Environment division was reduced from 5,000 to 1,600 files within the first 100 days of his tenure while at the Commercial Division, 27,000 of the 29,000 cases that were pending were dispensed with after the recruitment of new judges.

Similar initiatives, he noted, were made in the Constitutional, Human Rights and Judicial Review, the Criminal and the Family divisions.
Out of the 58,800 cases captured as backlog, 31,260 were disposed of in just 100 days.

He further stated that there were 4,033 cases pending before the Industrial Court in September 2012.

Dr Mutunga also announced the establishment of four new High Courts in Homa Bay, Garissa, Kerugoya and Murang’a, bringing the total to 20 countrywide and leaving a statutory shortfall of 27.

The Judiciary has 113 magistrate courts, up from 111 in June 2011.

With the intention to have a magistrate’s court in each district, there is a shortfall of 200 court stations.

The scorecard shows that between July 2011 and June 2012, 428,827 cases were filed in courts countrywide where a total of 421,134 were finalised.

This, according to the CJ, translated to an average of 1,685 cases concluded every working day.

He also revealed that 1,600 hand written proceedings, some of which were holding up criminal cases at the High Court, were typed by court staff as well as by National Youth Service personnel seconded to the Judiciary through a partnership agreement.