Court to rule on 46-year-old case
What you need to know:
- Mr King’ori Gachoro sued his partner, Ms Wanjiru Kamau, for allegedly taking over the running of the business while he was ill despite agreeing that all the proceeds would be shared on a 50-50 basis.
- Thursday, the court will also determine whether a case filed by ODM leader Raila Odinga against the Artur brothers will proceed or not.
The High Court in Nairobi will Thursday rule on one of the oldest cases in a bid by the Judiciary to clear over 15,000 cases that have been pending for years.
The case was filed in 1969 after a business deal between two partners in 1961 went sour. It is one of thousands of old cases that the Judiciary seeks to finalise by Thursday.
Mr King’ori Gachoro sued his partner, Ms Wanjiru Kamau, for allegedly taking over the running of the business while he was ill despite agreeing that all the proceeds would be shared on a 50-50 basis.
Court documents show that prominent lawyers, among them S.M. Otieno and J.M. Kapila (both of whom have died) faced off in the case that was last heard in 1993.
On Tuesday, Mr Justice Anthony Murima dismissed a case between Mau Mau Original Trust and Mau Mau war veterans filed in 2004 to determine who the bona fide freedom fighters were because the British Government was preparing to pay reparations to victims of the atrocities perpetrated by the colonialists.
Mr Justice Murima terminated the case after the two parties failed to appear in court.
ARTUR BROTHERS
Tomorrow, the court will also determine whether a case filed by ODM leader Raila Odinga against the Artur brothers will proceed or not.
The case filed in 2006 will be heard by Mr Justice Luka Kimaru.
The Judiciary handled 3,019 cases on the first day of the ongoing Justice@Last that targets to clear over 15,000 old cases at the civil division of the High Court in Milimani, Nairobi.
Fourteen judges gave directions on the cases on Monday, and have been dispensing with more cases by fixing hearing dates and dismissing those that have become dormant.
As the Judiciary fights to clear the backlog of cases, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga (below) has been pushing for the recruitment of more judges to speed up the hearings.
“With the number of judges we have, with each High Court judge handling an average 1,600 cases, we will not realise much,
“The need to hire more judges has never been more urgent. The recruitment of more judges must be treated as a national emergency,” said the Dr Mutunga.
Besides the shortage of manpower, Dr Mutunga said an audit had also proved that the case backlog crisis was due to many forces across the legal fraternity.
