Maraga decries Judiciary budget cut, discrimination from other State organs
Chief Justice David Maraga has decried the budget cut for Judiciary by the National Treasury saying the situation has crippled operations in courts across the country with mobile courts being the most affected.
“Unless the budget cuts are reversed, we do not have money for fuel, we will not have mobile courts, we will not have the court of Appeal circuits, we will not be able to pay for wi-fi for the e-filing and e-payment," said CJ Maraga while addressing the media on Monday.
Maraga also complained of 'oppression' by the other arms of government namely the Executive and the Legislature.
Recently, the National Treasury implemented measures to cut the budget for the Judiciary which affected several courts, almost leading to the closure of some.
"Judiciary does not require a lot of money to build courts. We need between Sh5 billion and Sh6 billion every year to have courts everywhere in the next 10 years," he said.
"The Judiciary Fund is now fully operational. Last week JSC authorized Judiciary to open a Judiciary Fund account at CBK. I am appealing that Treasury deposits funds allocated to the Judiciary in that account," Maraga said.
Maraga also revealed a scheme by unnamed Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries to end his tenure by the end of this year.
"I am not serving at the pleasure of any CS or PS. We do not go out to look for cases, cases come to us. I will not go to look for public funds from anybody," said the CJ.
