CJ Mutunga: Kenya facing acute shortage of judges

NAIROBI: Kenya faces a major shortage of magistrates and judges despite recruitment of new officials in ongoing reforms in the Judiciary.

According to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, the shortage is so dire that judges require a minimum of three years to dispense cases that have been filed in one year.

The CJ said the three year margin was on assumption that the judges would not take leave and would work over weekends and public holidays.

Dr Mutunga revealed that statistics from a study just finalised recently by the Judiciary Performance Directorate for the year 2012/13 showed that Kenyans filed about 54,000 cases in the High Court alone during that period.

The 54,000 cases are to be handled by just 90 High Court judges, which means that on average, each judge has 600 cases from a single year's worth of cases. "Even if all the 90 judges were sitting throughout weekends and holidays, they would take about three years to finish one year's matters. This is not sustainable,” Mutunga said.

The CJ was peaking Tuesday at the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi during the opening of the East Africa Magistrates and Judges Association conference.

According to the CJ, Kenya has a total of 700 judicial officers (from Resident Magistrates to the Chief Justice) for a population of 40 million, while a country like Germany has over 2,000 judicial officers for a population of 80 million. Mutunga said the shortage, which has been attributed to the huge backlog in the courts, was the reason why the Judiciary has been asking for more funds and recruitment of more other judges.

EAC CONFLICTS

He also said the Judiciary was encouraging Kenyans to adopt alternative dispute mechanisms as a way of easing the workload.

Mutunga regretted that the East African region has had a strong history of instability and conflicts emanating from breakdown of rule of law.

Although Kenya has increased its support of the Judiciary, Mutunga said every judiciary in the East African Community (EAC) have a history of financial neglect that undermines their capacity to deliver justice quickly.

"Respect for rule of law is not merely cultural, it is also economics. The EAC needs to invest more money in the development of its judiciaries as rule of law is imperative. This is also because the speed of justice is important not only to uphold people's rights but also to reduce the cost of business."

The four-day conference was opened by President Uhuru Kenyatta.