Maraga to Uhuru: Budget cuts grinding services to a halt

Chief Justice David Maraga has passionately pleaded for increased budgetary allocations to the Judiciary forestall imminent halt of key projects, including ongoing expansion and modernization of court infrastructure in the country.

The CJ, speaking the release of the state of the judiciary report 2018/19, said at least 80% of infrastructure projects are financed through donor funding key among them the World Bank-funded Judicial Performance Improvement Programme.

The current JPIP initiative funding of KSh10.5 billion is due to lapse in June 2020 and Maraga urged President Uhuru Kenyatta, who graced the event, to intervene detailing a myriad of challenges occasioned by abrupt budget cuts.

“Your Excellency, I make calls and they were not responded to,” he said during the event also attended by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka.

“We are stuck, we have not been told why (this happened). We live in this country; we were not given a chance to say what areas not to touch because they are crucial.”

The cuts, he said, “have brought some of the Judiciary functions to a halt.”

Maraga said the situation has been worsened by the recent budget cuts, effects of which will spill over to an already alarming state of backlog of cases.

“Our major problem is finances,” he said.

He said they were able to reduce the backlog of cases above 5 years to 38,000 from 170,000 but that was before the budget cuts.

Late last year, the CJ said affected services included mobile courts and automation services. He said Judiciary could no longer pay for internet connectivity.

The Chief Justice further cited shortages of manpower saying other than the Supreme Court, the rest are operating at 50 per cent of the required numbers.

His sentiments were echoed by Judiciary Chief Registrar Anne Amadi who warned of a looming crisis with World Bank funding for projects set to lapse in June 2020.

The World Bank, she said, has been financing data processing upgrades under the JPIP.

She called on the expeditious establishment of a statute for National Council of Administration of Justice, as recommended by the Judiciary Service Commission.

This, she said, will strengthen “all the justice sector institutions, to enable them to have a strong sense of ownership which will go a long way to improving the state of administration of justice in Kenya.”

Speaker Lusaka called for close partnership among the arms of government.