Court proceedings at the Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi were on Tuesday, August 24, halted after a four-hour disruption caused by a power outage.
In videos seen by Kenyans.co.ke, litigants and lawyers making submissions were left stranded as they stood within the corridors awaiting directions.
The lawyers were directed to continue select proceedings at nearby tents. The majority of cases were, however, adjourned due to the disruptions.
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The outage, which occurred at 9:00 am, saw court proceedings stall for four hours. A source at the law courts told Kenyans.co.ke that the backup generator had run out of fuel.
Lawyers at the premises urged Chief Justice Martha Koome to solve the issue, noting that the court's transformer had blown up two months ago hence the institution was surviving on a backup generator.
Advocate Evans Ondieki, who spoke to the media, urged Koome to take quick action and address the issue.
"The court proceedings have been halted substantially by lack of power and I think there is no emergency in terms of a generator to assist, and this has forced to adjourn most of the cases," Ondieki told K24.
A similar incidence was also witnessed in July 2018 when a blackout occurred during the bail hearing of senior Kenya Power officials who had been charged on grounds of corruption. The power was later restored.
The Judiciary has been on the spot with the backlog of cases topping their major challenges. This has seen CJ Koome move to recruit new judges as well as introduce night shifts for court proceedings.
"We hope to see innovations in time which could include the Commercial Courts and the 22 Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Courts adopting “night court” shifts i.e. court sittings between 5.00 p.m. and 8.00 p.m., to ensure that their performance and resolution of cases in real-time.
"The end result should be that no court case should stay in a trial court beyond a timeline of three years and an appellate court beyond one year," she stated.
