Cheif Justice David Maraga's woes at the helm of the Judiciary are growing by the day.
The recent budget cut is already taking a serious toll on the CJ. He is now appealing to the government to stretch its foreign debt further in a bid to save the Judiciary.
Maraga during the weekend admitted to the deplorable conditions under which his office and those of judges operate.
[caption caption="Chief Justice David Maraga speaks at a past function(PHOTO/COURTESY)"]
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He noted that other than working under limited space in the offices put up in the colonial days, the Judiciary is now unable to fill vacancies in the Court of Appeal.
"We are supposed to recruit about nine court-of-appeal judges. We sat last week with the Judicial Service Commission and there is a lot of pressure to fill the vacancies. The president of the court of appeal is saying they can't cope but we can not recruit because we don't even have office space for them to sit," regrets Maraga.
Speaking during an interview with NTV on Sunday, CJ Maraga further acknowledged that the reduction of the judiciary budget will make the conditions much worse.
"In my office for instance, sometimes when you get visitors you don’t even have a respectable washroom to accommodate them. It is that embarrassing," revealed Maraga.
He stated that some of the judges could take up to 20 minutes moving from their offices to access a washroom.
The CJ fears at least 29 court buildings under construction across the country risk stalling and shall remain white elephants in the event the Judiciary is not allocated reasonable funds to attain desirable financial autonomy.
"Parliament borrowed for its construction, look at the renovations done at the Senate, the MPs offices! Let the MPs come to the Supreme Court and see where the judges are seated. A judge walks almost 100 meters to go to the washroom," he noted.
He has appealed to the state to consider the Judiciary as critical, warning that if the dispute resolution mechanisms are weakened, investors would shun the country.
"What we thought was that Parliament would borrow for us a little more so that we are able to do more infrastructure for the Judiciary but they are saying they can't borrow," the CJ stated over the weekend.
[caption caption="Chief Justice David Maraga at a past function(PHOTO/COURTESY)"]
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