Promotion of 10 judges led to an increase in deposit cases

The elevation of 10 judges from the high court to the appeals headquarters was hailed as concerns about the expected ramifications of the courts involved come to the fore.

Critics have also undermined the wisdom of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to appoint only Supreme Court justices, while neglecting those of the Environmental and Land Tribunals (ELC), Employment and Labor Relations (ELRC) and candidates from academia.

Those whose names were passed on to the president are: Francis Tuiyott, Hellen Omondi, Pauline Nyamweya, Weldon Korir, Msagha Mbogholi, Aggrey Muchelule, Jessie Lesiit, Mumbi Ngugi, George Odunga and Joel Ngugi. Lawyer Imaana Laibuta is also to be considered.

Law Society of Kenya President Allen Gichuhi said the practice of previous appointments reflected the need for a variety of experiences from judges, lawyers and academics.

JUSTICE

About 40% of the appointments were reserved for members of private and academic firms. In the list presented to the president, only one lawyer was taken into account.


"In all honesty, while recognizing that the JSC has discretion in the interview process, we recommend that all future appointments to the Court of Appeal provide for a ratio of appointments to the High Court, to status courts. equal and at the helm, "says the LSK boss, adding that this would ensure fairness in the final nominations.

The lawyers' coordinating body also asked the JSC to continue and announce the post of judge to the High Court, taking into account the urgent need to replace those promoted, vacant positions of judges who might retire in the coming years, and need to improve access to justice.



The lawyers were concerned that some of the cases partially heard and dealt with by the 10 judges could be negatively affected if they were to start over again for any reason.

BACK

According to the lawyer Danstan Omari, such a scenario would lead to an increase in the judicial backlog, a big problem currently in the courts.

There are approximately 553,187 cases pending in court. The judiciary currently has 127 judges, 494 judges and 53 Kadhis.

As things stand, all the justice needs of the 52 million Kenyans are in the hands of these 674 officers of justice.

On a hypothetical basis, each judicial officer has an average of 821 cases to process if the cases were to be apportioned equally. (Justice officers have approximately 230 working days a year to hear and judge cases after deductions for weekends, holidays and holidays.)

It would take about four years to settle pending cases, without any new cases being closed.

The withdrawal of 10 judges without a plan developed to replace them as soon as possible only adds to the burden of balancing the reduction in the backlog of cases.

Concerns about the backlog are also evident as the 10 judges can not take new cases until they are sworn in, and we do not know when.

"JSC also did not announce any vacancies for the 10 positions. This may take a long time because the recruitment process is tedious. It will be worse if the JSC does not have a budget for recruitment and wants to wait for the Treasury to allocate funds, "said lawyer Omari.

RECRUITMENT

Okweh Achiando, lawyer, believes that recruitment could be delayed, among other factors, by the need to criticize the list of shortlisted candidates to replace the 10 senior judges.

Most of the judges who were promoted presided over the high court and were charged with administration.



The administrative aspect of the judiciary and case management may be slowed down.

"On the administrative side, some cases may suffer because