CJ Maraga: The construction of Court of Appeal and 41 others now suspended

juma chrispinus

July 24, 2018 2:46 PM

Maraga had launched numerous projects in the country.

The judiciary has announced a freeze on the construction of over 70 courts across the country, following the decision by the government to slash the budgetary allocations.

Speaking to journalists in Nairobi, Judicial Service Commission (JSC) chairperson and Chief Justice David Maraga said that most of the ongoing construction across the country, partly funded by the World Bank have now been thrown in a limbo, thanks to the financial constraints.

“In our view, there can’t be a good reason to impede the work of the judiciary through budgetary strangulation. In short we want to inform the public that while we will continue dispensing justice, services this year will be severely affected.

“The ICT implementation program, which is part of the Judiciary reforms, would halted. We had planned to construct the court of appeal premises at Upper Hill and Complexes in Meru and Kisii, but now this will be out of questions,” the CJ said in a press briefing.

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The Judiciary had plans in collaboration with the World Bank had rolled out numerous plans to construct additional courts in nearly all counties.

The statement by the JSC follows a drastic budget cut published on June 14 during the reading of the 2018/19 national budget when Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich announced an allocation of Sh15.2 billion for the judiciary down from Sh18 billion in the 2017/18 budget.

The reduced allocation for the Judiciary was however seen as detrimental to the delivery of justice by stakeholders in the sector with Chief Justice David Maraga having appealed for more funding when he released the State of the Judiciary and the Administration of Justice Report, (SOJAR) 2016-2017 on December 15, 2017.

“Indeed, in this financial year (2016/17), it (Judiciary funding/allocation) slipped to 0.99 per cent. This falls below the internationally recommended Judiciary Budget of 2.5 per cent of the national budget,” Maraga noted earlier.

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