The Judiciary on Friday, December 20, suspended all sittings of the Court of Appeal in Nyeri, Kisumu and Mombasa registries citing a shortage of judges and Uhuru's failure to approve JSC appointees to facilitate the running of the appeals courts.
As first reported by Citizen TV, the statement delivered by Court of Appeal President William Ouko faulted President Uhuru Kenyatta for failing to appoint 11 Court of Appeal judges recommended by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
Ouko further indicated that the Nyeri registry would be operated from Nairobi through a circuit system of once per month while Kisumu and Mombasa judges would permanently relocate to the capital, an action expected to take place by January 13, 2019.
"This decision is highly regrettable but beyond our control," remarked Ouko as quoted by the People Daily.
According to Ouko, the country has only 12 judges in the Court of Appeal who sit full-time and out of the 12 three are serving in Mombasa and three, until the passing on of Justice Odek, were serving in Kisumu.
"With this distribution, the court in Nairobi with nearly 3,000 appeals and applications can only mount two benches, a far cry from internationally accepted ratio," added the judge.
According to The Standard on October 22, Kenyatta, acting through the Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua filed an affidavit in which he revealed the integrity concerns against some of the nominees.
Further Kinyua indicated that the president questioned why the JSC never considered this adverse information against the unnamed nominees.
The High Court judges nominated to ascend to the higher court by the Judicial Service Commission included Msagha Mbogholi, Aggrey Muchelule, Francis Tuiyot, Hellen Omondi, Pauline Nyamweya, Weldon Korir, Jessie Wanjiku Lesiit, Mumbi Ngugi, George Odunga and Joel Ngugi.
The appointments were made after a recruitment exercise was undertaken by the JSC in July 2019.
The only non-serving nominee to the Aappellate court is renowned advocate and scholar Kibaya Laibuta.
