Business at the Nyamira High Court has been at a standstill for the past four months due to the absence of a judge.
The court was being manned by Justice Crispin Nagila, who retired in December 2017 and has yet to be replaced.
The head of the Nyamira Law Courts, Margaret Wambani, said her office had communicated with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) concerning the matter and that a new judge was expected.
The situation at the station is aggravated further because there is no magistrate to deal with the cases being filed.
"Currently, we only have a deputy registrar who doubles up as a magistrate. We are going to request for an additional one," Ms Wambani said.
According to a source in the court's registry, there are about 150 pending cases at the High Court.
Most of them are at the hearing stage and the new judge will be required to review them first.
Some of the new cases have been transferred to the Kisii High Court, where suspects have been taking pleas and having their cases mentioned.
Some of the pleaded cases, according to a Nyamira-based High Court advocate who requested for anonymity, have had more mentions than usual.
The lawyer added that litigants were in the dark about the prevailing situation at the Nyamira courts.
“We should have got a new judge as early as January. We don’t know what is happening,” he said.
