Pending court cases hearing begins

By Isaiah Lucheli

Hearing of over 6,707 cases pending in the Court of Appeal is set to begin on Monday following the decentralization of the appellate court to three major towns.

According to the office of the Chief Justice Willy Mutunga over 200 cases pending in the court in Nairobi and Mombasa will be heard until the end of the month.

“Four Court of Appeal benches will sit every day, concurrently, in Nairobi to hear 188 civil applications. Another bench of three judges will travel to Mombasa to hear 35 civil appeals,” read a statement from the CJ’s office.

In the changes announced last week by Mutunga the judiciary has established Court of Appeal in Kisumu, Nyeri and Malindi in an attempt to address the huge backlog of cases and move the services closer to the people.

“The January cause list is a stop-gap measure calculated to deal with the huge case backlog in the Court of Appeal pending the posting of permanent judges to Nyeri, Kisumu and Malindi as part of a national decentralisation strategy.

“The Court of Appeal had 6,707 pending cases as at October 19, 2012 when the Chief Justice presented the Annual State of the Judiciary Report,” the statement read in part.

The mounting of four courts in Nairobi to hear matters simultaneously is the first time in the court’s history.

Before the appointment of 16 new judges of the court last year, which was the highest number ever appointed, only two benches could be constituted in Nairobi.

The Court of Appeal is the second highest Court in Kenya and determines 95 per cent of all the appeals.

The Court of Appeal is expected to hold elections for its President and representative to the JSC on February 18, 2013. Appellate Judge Erustas Githinji has been the acting president since justice Riaga omollo was found unsuitable by the vetting board.