Judiciary is under serious capture, CJ Koome says, urges Uhuru to appoint six remaining judges
Chief Justice Martha Koome on Friday said the independence of the Judiciary was under serious threat and capture.
While witnessing the swearing-in of the new Court of Appeal president Daniel Musinga, Koome also called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to appoint the six remaining judges, four of whom were supposed to join the appellate court.
CJ Koome said the Constitution was clear about the appointment of judges.
"I'm a judge and I do not want to enter into any controversy but I'm duty bound to reiterate this position and call on President to appoint the remaining six judges," she said.
In a special Gazette notice published on June 3, the President appointed 34 of the 40 candidates nominated by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to the Court of Appeal, Environment and Lands Court, and the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
High Court Justices Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Aggrey Muchelule and Weldon Korir were not promoted to the Court of Appeal “for failing to meet the required threshold”.
The CJ also took issue with the funding of the Judiciary saying the Ksh17 billion allocation to the third arm of government was too little.
She said: "We have 26 other courts that are almost complete but can't be occupied because there's no money to complete them. If we have to tackle backlog of cases and adopt technology to enhance efficiency and improve infrastructure and taking Justice closer to the people, we require funds allocated to the Judiciary."
