Chief Registrar Anne Amadi before House Accounts committee. Photo/Phoebe Okall
What you need to know:
Members of the JSC are now earning Sh10,000 per sitting, down from Sh80,000, an 87.5 per cent cut, Chief Registrar Anne Amadi told parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday.
The sittings have also been capped at eight per month, meaning that the commissioners can earn a maximum of Sh80,000 per month in sitting allowances.
Judiciary also terminates property leases and contracts worth more than Sh1 billion.
The Judiciary has cut commissioners’ allowances and terminated a number of property leases after a damning report by the Auditor-General detailed wastage and irregularities running into hundreds of millions at the department.
Members of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) are now earning Sh10,000 per sitting, down from Sh80,000, an 87.5 per cent cut, Chief Registrar Anne Amadi told parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday.
The sittings have also been capped at eight per month, meaning that the commissioners can earn a maximum of Sh80,000 per month in sitting allowances.
The Judiciary has also terminated or is in the process of ending lease contracts for a number of properties where it is paying rent for unoccupied space.
These properties include buildings owned by the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC), Rahimtullah Towers and Elgon Place, which was leased for the Court of Appeal in a six-year deal worth Sh420.6 million, but remains unoccupied.
Also stopped is the Sh626.5 million contracts awarded to Timsales Ltd and Economic Housing Group to construct prefabricated courts in Othaya, Marimanti, Wang’uru, Tawa, Garsen, Bomet and Mavoko.
The JSC is chaired by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and has 10 other members including the Chief Registrar, the Attorney-General and Margaret Kobia, the chair of the Public Service Commission. Others include judges Smokin Wanjala, Mohamed Warsame, Aggrey Muchelule and chief magistrate Emily Ominde.
“We still have cases that require JSC to sit for more than eight times in a month but the agreement being implemented to the letter is that monthly payment cannot exceed Sh80,000,” said Ms Amadi.
The JSC is alleged to have demanded that people who are not members of the commission but employees of the Judiciary be paid Sh80,000 as sitting allowances yet they were entitled to Sh10,000.
Some Sh9.8 million was paid out in this manner while Sh1.6 million was paid in allowances for meetings that had not been legally constituted, the special audit by the Auditor-General’s office revealed.
The report, prepared for the Parliamentary Accounts Committee, accuses the Chief Justice and former Chief Registrar Gladys Shollei of presiding over suspect deals worth at least Sh645 million.
Auditor-General Edward Ouko says about 70 per cent of Rahimtullah Towers, which has 22 floors, was occupied by Judiciary staff as office space and comes with an annual rent of Sh39.4 million.
The Judiciary also paid a six-month deposit based on rent effective July 2017, translating to an over payment of Sh1.08 million per month. Ms Amadi said the lease contract has been renegotiated to capture the unused space.
The lease for Elgon Place, which judges refused to occupy, has also been cancelled.
The AFC pact to open its various branches to the Judiciary in a five-year lease worth Sh43.5 million per annum has also been affected.
“We don’t have lease agreements but have paid for the tenancy up to end of June and informed their agents of our decision to terminate the contracts,” said Ms Amadi.
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