Efficient Judiciary primed to deliver prompt justice

Supreme Court in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

The last financial year saw substantial improvements in the Judiciary’s performance and service delivery. Case clearance rate reached an impressive 99 per cent with 516,121 cases filed compared to 509,664 cases resolved.

Furthermore, we have seen a marked reduction in pending cases from 649,342 cases to 635,262 cases. Case backlog, meaning cases older than one year in the court system have reduced by 10 per cent. Kenyans are increasingly assured of prompt dispute resolution. This is not accidental but the result of concerted efforts to improve efficiency and timeliness in justice delivery.

Our commitment to widening the avenues of justice has been unwavering. The High Court’s presence now extends to 46 out of 47 counties. We also expanded the reach of specialised courts, with the establishment of three new divisions of the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi and a sub-registry in Voi. Similarly, we established three additional Environment and Land Court stations and a sub-registry in Lodwar.

We also operationalised three Magistrates’ courts and 57 mobile courts, reducing the average distance to court services to 80 kilometers. The Small Claims Court, a critical pillar of our efforts to ensure timely delivery of justice, has expanded with the establishment of 27 courts across the country. In line with our multi-door approach to justice, we inaugurated nine Court Annexed Mediation Registries, eight Alternative Justice Systems (AJS) Ukumbi suites and launched AJS County Action Plans in four counties, effectively integrating traditional and community-based conflict resolution mechanisms into the formal justice system.

A transformative development in the past financial year has been our digital transformation journey. After years of planning and investment, we achieved a nationwide rollout of e-filing, transforming how justice is accessed and delivered. We have also initiated transcription services in courts across Kenya with the aim of producing case transcripts within 72 hours. This will streamline court proceedings, improve record accuracy, and accelerate the delivery of justice. Under our Mahakama Digitisation Programme, we scanned over 325,000 court files, making record retrieval more efficient and secured storage of court records.

To further improve our administrative efficiency, we implemented an Enterprise Resource Planning system which integrates essential functions into a single platform, enhancing coordination across our departments, facilitating data sharing, and improving financial transparency. We also launched a Management Data Dashboard that enables real-time performance monitoring, data-driven decision-making, and enhanced accountability.

Investments in ICT infrastructure have bolstered the reliability of our digital platforms. We connected 67 court stations to the National Optical Fibre Backbone Infrastructure and upgraded the Local Area Network in 42 stations. These enhancements ensure that our digital justice systems remain robust, reliable, and accessible. Although we currently operate at only 68 per cent of our approved staff establishment, this was an improvement from 64 per cent in the previous financial year. We also increased the numbers of judges and judicial officers. Although we celebrate these gains, we recognise the pressing need for further investment to reach the 80 per cent optimal staffing levels in the Judiciary to meet the demands of a growing caseload. 

The Judiciary continues to face funding challenges owing to historical chronic underfunding of the justice sector. For the past three financial years, funding has consistently fallen short by nearly 50 per cent, limiting our capacity to meet the expanding justice demands. In the past financial year, we received only Sh22.42 billion, way below the required budget of Sh43.17 billion. This funding gap restricts our ability to realise the constitutional promise of social transformation through access to justice.   

The writer is Chief Justice