Towards a well-resourced Judiciary and improved access to justice for all

The launch of the State of the Judiciary and Administration of Justice (SOJAR) Annual Report FY 2021/22 on November 4, 2022, in the presence of leaders from all arms of government speaks to the shared responsibility towards realisation of the constitutional right of access to justice as enshrined in Article 48 of our Constitution.

The triple commitment by His Excellency the President to address the financial constraints that have hampered optimal service delivery by the Judiciary, through increased budgetary allocation; addressing the Judiciary’s human resource constraints through the appointment of more judges; and, curing the Judiciary’s cute infrastructure deficit through support to the Judiciary’s digitisation agenda, establishing 100 Small Claims Courts, magistrates courts in all constituencies, and High Courts in all counties as part of your legacy agenda, are clear and irrefutable evidence that the Executive intends to partner with the Judiciary to realise the objective of establishing an efficient and accessible justice system.

Case clearance rate

During the last Financial Year, 404,312 cases were filed in the Judiciary, of which 257,205 were criminal cases and 147,107 civil cases. 42 per cent of these cases are in five counties (Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kiambu and Machakos). 

The courts recorded a case clearance rate of 94 per cent, with 381,317 cases resolved comprising 231,415 criminal cases and 149,902 civil cases. At the end of the financial year, 678,697 cases were pending before the courts.

As a way of expanding the doorways of justice, 11 new Environment and Land Courts and six new High Court stations were established across the country. In addition, two Supreme Court sub-registries, five Court of Appeal sub-registries, and three High Court sub-registries were established.

Another transformative intervention during the year was the establishment of 11 Small Claims Courts. The Small Claims Court is a revolutionary court that has enabled the resolution of claims below Sh1 million to be resolved within 60 days in a process marked by informal and less cumbersome court processes. During the period, the Small Claims Court resolved 9,315 cases, releasing Sh1.431 billion into the economy. 

To expedite the resolution of sexual and gender-based cases, we operationalised a Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) court at Shanzu to expedite the resolution of sexual and gender-based crimes. We hope to scale up the rollout of the SGBV courts throughout the country, starting with Makadara Law courts. 

In addition, we decentralised the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) across seven regions during the period. The tribunal received and concluded 198 matters within one month of filing.

Multi-door approach

In pursuit of our multi-door approach to access justice, the last financial year saw the strengthening and expansion of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Our Court Annexed Mediation programme was expanded to an additional eight court stations during the year. This means that Court Annexed Mediation is now operational in 94 court stations.

The Judiciary in the reporting period launched three Alternative Justice System (AJS) suites and models in Kajiado, Isiolo and Nakuru. 

Additionally, 10 AJS mechanisms panels were launched in Kajiado County.

The Judiciary also mounted mobile courts in far-flung areas in our continued quest to bridge the geographical distance between litigants and courts.

We are leveraging the use of information and community technology (ICT) to deepen the efficiency of our operations and the delivery of judicial service.

At the end of the reporting period, the employee complement was at 66 per cent (6,182), an increase of 10 per cent from the previous year of 56 per cent. Judges were at 49 per cent, magistrates and Kadhis at 49 per cent, Law Clerks and Legal Researchers at 27 per cent and Judicial Staff at 66 per cent. For optimal function, the overall Judiciary establishment requirement is 9,417; 348 judges, 1,200 judicial officers, 650 law clerks and legal researchers while 7,219 are judicial staff.

Judiciary Fund

One of the key achievements was the operationalisation of the Judiciary Fund at end of the financial year. This followed a successful consultative process between the Judiciary, the National Treasury, the Central Bank of Kenya, and the Controller of Budget.

The Judiciary allocation for the FY 2021/22 was Sh18.122 billion, out of which Sh15.968 billion was for recurrent expenses and Sh2,154 billion was for the development vote.

This is extremely low as it represents just 0.6 per cent in proportionality for allocations of the national budget and well below the international best practice of allocating to Judiciary Funds, proportionate to 3 per cent of the national budget.

It is notable that in November 2021, the Judiciary invited the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to undertake a comprehensive Judiciary Systems Audit. This systemic review of the policies, procedures and practices of the Judiciary will identify the avenues and opportunities for unethical and corrupt practices so that the Judiciary can work towards eliminating them.

(This is an abridged version of the speech delivered by Hon. Justice Martha Koome, EGH, Chief Justice & President of the Supreme Court of Kenya during the launch of the State of the Judiciary and Administration of Justice Annual Report FY 2021/22 yesterday)