The Judiciary is constitutionally empowered to hear Gachagua impeachment.
The Judiciary’s budgetary allocation has largely stagnated in recent years despite promises for additional funding.
The Chief Justice Martha Koome-led institution is lamenting that a Sh15 billion shortfall in the new financial year will derail planned reforms.
In the forthcoming 2025/26 financial year, which begins in July, the National Treasury has proposed an allocation ceiling of Sh24.9 billion-- Sh23.4 billion for recurrent and Sh1.5 billion for development expenditures-- against the judiciary’s budget requirement of Sh40 billion.
Although inadequate budgetary funding is a perennial problem, the judiciary finds itself in an unprecedented situation where it has to also contend with a power struggle as the CJ and fellow Supreme Court judges fight the Judicial Service Commission over a bid to remove the top judges from office.
This budget deficit, the judiciary cautions, will derail efforts to construct more court stations, hire more judicial staff, entrench use of technology in judicial systems, improve welfare of staff and introduce efficient justice solutions sensitive to people needs, especially the vulnerable and marginalised.
Measures to enhance security in courts nationwide in the backdrop of the killing of Makadara law courts magistrate Monica Kivuti inside a courtroom in June 2024 are also on the line owing to the cash crunch.
These are among the measures proposed in CJ Koome's 10-year blueprint for Social Transformation through Access to Justice (STAJ) planned through to 2033.
Chief Justice Martha Koome.
"The Judiciary has been receiving less than half of its budgetary requirements. This shortfall has grossly affected the implementation of critical programmes," reads an expenditure framework document dubbed 'Judiciary Budget'.
Among the measures frustrated by low funding is hiring additional staff to address the backlog of cases that continues to frustrate Kenyans.
According to the document, the case backlog is a going concern especially at the magistrate's level, where the case backlog increased from 185,903 cases in 2022/23 financial year to 187,370 in 2023/24 financial year.
"This is attributed to the high caseload that is compounded by the inadequate number of magistrates," says the report.
As part of strategy to speed up dispute resolution, the Chief Justice has announced plans to extend the court-annexed mediation services from the current 62 stations to 77. The 15 additional stations will cover Lamu, Kwale, Samburu, Wajir, Mandera and Taita Taveta counties.
"Since the launch of the court-annexed mediation programme in 2016, the judiciary has made substantial progress in integrating mediation into the formal justice system as over 26,991 cases have been referred to mediation, with more than 24,464 cases successfully concluded. This represents an impressive resolution rate of 91.33 per cent," Ms Koome said last Thursday in Nairobi.
These cases, the CJ said, have unlocked Sh68.9 billion into the economy, demonstrating the economic and social value of the mediation in resolving disputes.
It’s such efforts that are undermined by inadequate funding.
"This resource requirement of Sh40 billion is required to support the implementation of the Social Transformation Access to Justice (STAJ) vision and the government’s Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA)," the document says.
"The Judiciary is engaging other development partners to mobilize additional funding to reduce the gap. Because of this budget deficit, the identified key priority areas will not be fully funded," it adds.
In the current fiscal year (2024/25) ending on June 30, the judiciary was allocated Sh22.2 billion against a requirement of Sh44.9 billion, leaving a financing gap of Sh22.7 billion.
Resulting from inadequate funds, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which is chaired by the Chief Justice, last July suspended the planned recruitment of 11 Court of Appeal judges.
In the previous 2023/24 financial year, the judiciary got Sh22.4 billion against a request of Sh43 billion, leaving a Sh20.6 billion budget gap. Nevertheless, this allocation was a slight increase from Sh21 billion allocated in the 2022/23 financial year.
When President William Ruto was elected to office in 2022, he had promised to scale up the budgetary allocation to the judiciary by an additional Sh3 billion annually for the next five years.
Upon her appointment in May 2021, Ms Koome promised speedy conclusion of cases and in November 2023 she launched her vision dubbed "Blueprint for Social Transformation through Access to Justice (STAJ) 2023-2033". The vision builds on the previous judiciary reforms initiated by her predecessors retired Chief Justices David Maraga and Willy Mutunga.
In the blueprint, Ms Koome seeks to bolster public confidence in the country's judicial system by addressing existing barriers to access to justice including geographical, economic, structural and technological.
She aspires to achieve five key outcomes in the blueprint, including a strong judicial institution that is independent, accessible, efficient and protects the rights of all, especially the vulnerable.
Under this category, the plan is to establish High Court stations and courts of equal status such as Environment & Lands court and Employment & Labour Relations court in every county and magistrates’ courts in every sub-county.
This would require budget for construction of the structures and recruitment of more judges, magistrates and judicial staff.
Supreme Court Plaza
Currently there are 47 High Court stations and 127 magistrate's court stations.
Ms Koome also aspires to establish the Supreme Court Plaza, Court of Appeal Complex in Nairobi and Tribunals’ Plaza. The blueprint also envisions transformation of the Kenya Judiciary Academy into a world-class centre of excellence in judicial training and acquisition the Judiciary Administration Centre.
In addition, establishment and expansion of specialized courts to deal with sexual and gender-based violence, small claims courts, children’s courts, courts of petty offences and 24-hour duty courts.
Also envisioned is a national transcription centre, data and innovation bureau as well as Kenya justice library programme.
The blueprint endeavors to ensure optimal recruitment of judges, judicial officers and staff as well as to establish the Chief Justice’s Roll of Honour to reward highly performing judiciary personnel.
Also envisaged is having each court accessible to a wheelchair user and fitting the courtrooms with auditory amplification devices, equipped with braille and translation facilities.
The judiciary also intends to invest on improved wellness of judges, judicial officers and staff through provision of a medical cover.
The Judiciary has outlined 13 priority areas of funding in the upcoming fiscal year, including facilitation of state officers and court stations through leasing of motor vehicles, provision of fuel as well as maintenance.
Continuous recruitment of staff and facilitating a conducive work environment for court users by engaging cleaning services for the courts and judiciary premises are also captured.
Funding is also earmarked towards provision of internet and ICT equipment to support the prison decongestion program, where all courtrooms require ICT equipment including laptops to enable instant processing of cash bail and fines and automation of court services including e-filing.
Another priority area of funding is enhancing adoption of technology for administration of justice.
Recently, the Chief Justice directed judicial officers to transition to a fully online model to streamline processes, reduce turnaround times and eliminate the need for physical visits to courts.
"A key strategy for achieving STAJ vision is leveraging technology to enhance productivity through process automation and the digitization of judicial services," the CJ said in the internal memo signed by Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Wilfridah Mokaya.
The other priority areas of funding include promoting access to justice for vulnerable groups including the establishment of sexual & gender-based violence (SGBV) and child friendly courts.
Completion of ongoing court constructions, establishment of new sub-registries, circuit sessions by superior courts and mobile court stations under the subordinate courts are other priority areas requiring funding.
Inadequate court infrastructure and shortage of adjudicators at the Small Claims Court have also been listed among challenges.
"Security of judiciary infrastructure and safety of personnel. The increasing cost of pro-bono services due to change in policy guideline and inadequate adjudicators to cope with the increasing workload in the Small Claims Courts," indicates the document.
