Judiciary in Shambles as Govt Stiffles Funding

A crisis has hit the judiciary after an intensified war with the treasury left them in a cash crunch forcing dozens of courts to shut down.

Due to this shut down over 15,000 cases were suspended indefinitely on Monday 28 October over the cripling budget cuts.

The Standard reported that 10,000 cases of the suspended ones were cases in tribunals that included rent restrictions, business premises and cooperatives.

The other 5,598 were cases in mobile courts around the country that were not spared in the shutdown.

The treasury slashed judiciary's budget by over Ksh3 billion in september citing revenue shortage and need to raise funds for President Uhuru Kenyatta's big four agenda.

The treasury was able to squeeze a whooping Ksh131 billion for the big four from different government agenda.

The judiciary had requested for Ksh 31.2 billion but was allocated Ksh 14.5 billion by the national assembly which treasury slashed to Ksh11.5 billion.

On Monday, October 28 the labour court in Malindi and the high court in Nakuru were forced to suspend sittings with public notices sent citing budgetary constraints.

The Mombasa road publication stated that some judges who spoke of the issues warned of the imminent collapse of the justice system if the crisis was not urgently sorted.

The shut down also affected over 60 mobile courts established to help reach remote areas such as Lamu, Isiolo, Lodwar, Garissa, Moyale and Malindi.