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Courts collect Sh4 million less revenue than in 2016: report

Courts in the country have this year collected a revenue of Sh1.972 billion from fines imposed on law offenders and fees for various services offered in courts, down from Sh2.3 billion in 2016.
According to the annual State of the Judiciary and Administration of Justice Report 2016/2017, the third arm of government collected Sh1.125 billion in form of fines and Sh847 million in form of fees, from its more than 150 court stations countrywide.
FINES
In 2016 Kenyans paid fines worth Sh1.47 billion and Sh838 million court fees.
The Judiciary has gradually eliminated collection of revenue in form of cash by implementing the M-Pesa payment system, agency banking and direct banking, a move which has improved revenue collection and accountability.
In the category of fines, the Milimani law courts topped the list with Sh129 million followed by Mombasa with Sh66.2 million, Kibera Sh63.8 million, Naivasha Sh41.8 million, Eldoret Sh36 million, Nyeri Sh35 million and Makadara Sh31.9 million.
Court stations like Ijara, newly created Dadaab court and Balambala collected zero revenue in form of fines.
FEES
However, in the category of court fees, the three stations collected Sh107,000, Sh126,000 and Sh20,000, respectively.
Milimani topped again in the fees category with Sh156 million, while its commercial division collected Sh199 million followed by Mombasa law courts with Sh59 million.
The new court at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), which started operations in June, 2016 after gazettement, collected Sh19.6 million in form of fines and Sh63,000 on form of fees.
The Shanzu law court station, which was delinked from the Mombasa law courts, had zero return in court fees but collected Sh24.4 million in fines.
The Judiciary also had Sh4.3 billion deposited in cash as security for offenders who are out on cash bail pending trial.
AUTOMATION
The report also indicates that the Judiciary is facing challenges of lack of adequate funding and delays in implementation of planned programmes.
“The resources available are inadequate to establish courts, fund tribunals and ensure adequate human resource to meet its increasing workload. Most of the court stations do not have appropriate ICT capabilities to support Judiciary Digital Strategy,” reads the report.
The institution decries that revenue receipting is still manual and there are risks of fraud and falsified receipting.
“This may lead to loss of revenue. This can be addressed by automating the revenue receipting. The Judiciary is considering automating revenue receipting after getting necessary approvals from the National Treasury,” the report adds.
Apart from the three cashless forms of revenue collection – direct deposit, M-Pesa and agency banking – the Judiciary also wants to add other means such as the use of credit or debit cards.
ELECTION SUITS
The report also shows that that Judiciary secured Sh300 million for the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal to enable it manage elections disputes, and it had also trained judges and magistrates on handling elections offences and petitions.
The Judiciary trained and gazetted 92 Special Magistrates to handle Electoral Offences.
More than 360 criminal cases were prosecuted before various anti-corruption courts while another 518 were being investigated by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
“Recovery of proceeds of corruption through the setting up of the Assets Recovery Agency has led to seizure of property worth Sh158 million in the form of land, vehicles and business entities. Therefore implementation of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-money Laundering Act 2016, has led to reduced loss of public funds through recovery of proceeds of crime and corruption totalling Sh3 billion,” the report further indicates.
BAIL AND BOND
The Judiciary is also facing other challenges, including release of suspects on bond and bail without due consideration or involving the police for verification, which has resulted in some suspects absconding hearings.
The report further says that in some cases, the Judiciary grants unreasonable bail and bond amounts compared to the crime committed, leading suspects to abscond court. This in turn leads to several warrants of arrest being issued and eventually police being blamed for not arresting the suspects.
In addition, it mentions the refusal by judicial officers to reinstate cases withdrawn under Section 87(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code – the officers instead demand that the cases start afresh.
The report cites other difficulties encountered in the Judiciary as: “Poor holding facilities for remandees hence, posing danger of escape and even to personnel manning them. Delay in finalising of cases, which is normally caused by probation officers who fail to provide their reports on time to the court prosecutors.”
MURDER CASES
Meanwhile, the High Court stations in Meru, Eldoret, Milimani, Nakuru and Nairobi recorded the highest number of murder cases among the 1,225 cases that were filed in the year.
Meru had at least 111 murder cases, Eldoret 102, Milimani 91, Nakuru 86, Mombasa 50, Kisumu 36, Murang’a 39 and Nyeri 17 cases.
At least 16,973 criminal cases are pending in the High Court plus a backlog of 94,686 cases, which date back to 10 years ago.
A total of 7,285 criminal appeals were filed by convicts and at least 5,171 have been resolved, amongst them 1,031 on murder charges.
The High Court in Garsen recorded nil murder cases, while Lodwar and Makueni had only four murder cases each.
FAMILY
At least 104,593 civil cases are pending in the High Court, which include commercial matters, income tax appeal, bankruptcy, family issues, divorce, adoption, matrimonial property, Constitution and human rights, and Judicial Review.
There are 832 pending cases of divorce, with Nairobi and Mombasa having the highest numbers of 387 and 253 divorce cases, respectively.
In the High Court in Eldoret, there are 30 cases on divorce, Kisii has 38, Meru 20, Malindi 27, Nyeri 24 and four in Nanyuki.
In matrimonial property category, there are 714 disputes with Nairobi’s Milimani topping the list with 330 cases, Nyamira 181 cases, Kerugoya 55, Garissa 46 and two in Chuka.
The Kadhi’s court has a backlog of at least 1,008 cases with Mombasa leading with 527 cases, Nairobi 218, Mandera 53, Hamisi 40 and Kwale 30.
BACKLOG
In the magistrate courts, there is a backlog of 199,536 cases dating back to 10 years ago with the Milimani Commercial Magistrate leading with a backlog of 28,808 cases, followed by Mombasa Magistrate’s Court which has a backlog of 27,215 cases.
The magistrate courts of Mpeketoni, Ngong and JKIA have zero backlog.
Courts also received at least 136 cases relating to abortion, with eight cases filed at the Molo law courts, seven in Eldoret, six in Bomet and five each in Kericho and Limuru.
There were at least 28,336 alcoholic offences filed in the magistrate courts and 28,336 cases on creating disturbance.
At least 6,458 cases were filed in court in relation to sexual offences and 87,152 traffic offences.
PRISONS
The report adds that there are 118 Penal Institutions spread across the country.
Nine facilities are categorised as Maximum Security prisons with prisoners sentenced to 10 years and above, life or death penalty, while 46 of them are classified as Medium Security holding prisoners serving between 5-10 years.
The remaining 64 are classified as Open Prisons with prisoners assessed to be of minimum security risk serving up to a maximum of five years.
A further study of the document shows that the prisons also contain ordinary and capital remand prisoners.
OVERCROWDED
The daily average prisoners’ population is 50,000 (31,000 convicted and 18,677 awaiting trial) against an accommodation capacity of 26,000 prisoners.
This implies that the prison facilities are over 100 per cent overcrowded.
Furthermore, on average, there are about 600 children aged four years and below who are with their mothers in prison.

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