Deputy President Dr William Ruto has denied reports that Sh21 billion allocated to Arror and Kimwarer dam projects in Elgeyo-Marakwet has been lost.
“It is a flat lie, the money in question is Sh7 billion and for every coin that has been paid, we have a bank guarantee, no money will be lost because we are a responsible Government, we have engaged all arms of the Government to ensure that public resources are safe,” said the DP.
Speaking during the launch of a status report on Judiciary at the Supreme Court on Thursday, Dr Ruto insisted that facts should be gotten right in order to nail the corruption suspects.
The DP, who caused laughter when he said he was not dressed properly for the occasion, insisted on unwavering support for the Judiciary.
“When you hear us criticising the Judiciary, it is because we support the Judiciary and it is in that context that we make such comments,” he said.
The 2019 Judiciary report by Chief Justice David Maraga highlighted on the major steps and challenges that have affected the institution.
Among the challenges he mentioned were the case backlogs in courts and inadequate resources from human to financial.
“We have had challenges in backlog of cases. There has been a steady growth of the cases. Our aim is to ensure that we do not have cases that are more than five years old,” CJ Maraga said.
He also appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to make an exception and allocate them a piece of land in Kilimani where we can start building a Court of Appeal.
Among the milestones as an institution, Maraga said apart from improving infrastructure, they are also advancing in the digitisation of court records now that manual recording is time-consuming and hampers the rate at which cases are disposed.
“We have made steps in improving infrastructure. We have 102 courts under construction. The projects are in two categories: Those funded by the World Bank and those funded by the government of Kenya,” he added.
Maraga also urged the Government to make good cases so that they are not dismissed: “If the Government has a good case, we will rule in its favour. If not, we will dismiss the case. There should be no tension between the arms of the Government.”
President Uhuru who was also in attendance, congratulated members of the Judiciary for their hard work and reminded them that the public relied on the institution for the administration of justice.
