Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi has condemned Chief Justice David Maraga for expressing his frustration over the Treasury's drastic budgetary cuts for Judiciary.
Taking to his Twitter, Ahmednasir alleged that the judiciary does not efficiently deliver services to the public and, therefore, Treasury should not allocate them more funds.
The city lawyer also noted that the CJ erred in decrying for additional budget allocation as the judiciary is not about buildings but delivering of justice on behalf of the Kenyan people.
"Judiciary is not about buildings...buildings...buildings...We would have been very very sympathetic if the judiciary was delivering for Kenyans...it isn't...with over 1000 judges and magistrates the judiciary is moribund...backlogs...runaway corruption...inefficiency etc..." Ahmednasir exclaimed.
[caption caption="Senior counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi at the Supreme Court of Kenya"]
[/caption]
He went ahead to wonder: "In the Milimani Commercial court a mere application for an injunction can take 4 YEARS PLUS...why should TREASURY fund such hopeless inefficiency and incompetence?"
On Tuesday, CJ Maraga warned that a total of 70 ongoing court modernization and construction projects are headed for a halt if the National Treasury will not approve an extension of World Bank loan facility extended to the Judiciary.
"The government’s cut in the Judiciary Budget is made worse by the imminent expiry of the Judicial Performance Improvement Project (JPIP), the Sh11.5 billion World Bank loan facility through which many of the Judiciary projects have been funded," Maraga stated.
According to Maraga, a total of 41 government-funded projects would require Ksh1.9 billion to be concluded.
These include a Ksh330 million Marsabit Law Courts construction, Ksh315 million Kabarnet Law Courts building and Ksh316 million project at the Homa Bay Law Courts.
Other ongoing government-funded projects include the construction of Judicial Service Commission offices at the cost of Ksh10 million and a Ksh1.3 million Standards Tribunal building.
Additionally, the reduced funding of the judiciary will impede the expedition of backlog with the looming suspension of mobile court operations in fifty court stations.
[caption caption="Chief Justice David Maraga, his deputy Philomena Muilu together with other Judiciary officials speaking on judiciary's budget allocation"]
[/caption]
