Justice delivery crisis as judges go on leave

What you need to know:

  • The Judiciary has retained the “summer vacation” tradition, the irony of the break being taken during the country’s coldest months notwithstanding.

Judges are preparing to go on a long vacation, as nearly 180,000 cases remain pending in the courts countrywide.

An audit conducted between 2012 and 2014 revealed that 82,136 cases were pending at Nairobi’s Milimani High Court Division alone, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the 177,898 countrywide.
The “summer vacation” for the judges of the Supreme, Appeal and High courts, will run from August 1 to September 15.

The one-and-a-half months break has its origins in the colonial era, when mostly European judges and their colleagues from other Commonwealth countries took a break to return to their home countries in the summer.

The Judiciary has retained the “summer vacation” tradition, the irony of the break being taken during the country’s coldest months notwithstanding.
The 11 judges recently named to the Bench are also entitled to the break, even though they have not been in employment for two months.

Christmas and New Year

Judges also take a three-week break for Christmas and New Year festivities, on top of their annual leave.
Chief Justice Willy Mutunga announced the start of the break in the Kenya Gazette.

There would be duty judges at every court to hear urgent cases, the CJ said. But magistrates’ courts will continue operating normally.

Regarding High Court hearings, Dr Mutunga said: “In court stations with a single judge, cases will be heard at the nearest High Court where a vacation judge will be sitting.”

The “summer vacation” for judges was one of the contentious issues during debate on reforming the Judiciary, with promises that it would be streamlined.

But 50 years after Independence, the Kenyan judges continue to enjoy a holiday started by their colonial predecessors.

Judiciary Chief Registrar Anne Atieno Amadi, responding to questions from the Saturday Nation, said: “The new judges cannot be left out. All the judges are entitled to go on vacation when the court is required to do so.”