Judiciary defends City Hall shutdown

The Judiciary has defended its decision to cease operations at City Hall, Nairobi, arguing it is within the law, even as the fate of petty city offenders remains in the balance.

This stalemate is likely to spill over to other counties as the judiciary wades into the matter in a move likely to cause an impasse.
 
The decision has severely affected law enforcement in Nairobi County for three days running, stirring a standoff between the city prosecution team and the judiciary over the transfer of cases from the city courts to Milimani courts.
 
In its defense, however, the judiciary maintained it was bound by the law, and that “recent directive on the initiation of cases at the court that has been operating at City Hall must be seen in this light”.
 
At the centre of the dispute is a revenue-sharing formula between the county and the judiciary.
 
The tension between the two institutions dates back to 2016 when the county and the Judiciary agreed on modalities for sharing the revenue collected by the City Courts, which has not been implemented for years.
 
The sweeping move left the municipal prosecution team jobless as the effected changes required all cases to be transferred to Milimani courts.
 
“The judiciary will continue to collect fines arising from the enforcement of county legislation and remit the same to national treasury until a legal framework requiring the fines to be applied differently is enacted,” chief registrar of the judiciary Anne Amadi said.
 
However, the counties are now accusing the judiciary of trying to implement the agreement, which was not clear, and has faced several challenges since 2016.
 
The City Magistrate Leah Gichera in a September 28 notice said that as of October 2, ‘all pleas will be registered at the Milimani Law Courts County Registry’.