Lawyers close High Court in Eldoret to demand judges

Business was paralysed at the Eldoret Law Courts, including the High Court, on Monday morning as lawyers protested shortage of magistrates and judges.

The law practitioners staged sit-in to in a bid to pile pressure on the Judicial Service Commission to post more court officers to the station.

4, 000 CASES

The more than 200 lawyers locked the High Court to protest against the shortage.

Led by North Rift Laws Society of Kenya (LSK) chapter chairman Zephaniah Yego, the demonstrators accused JSC and Chief Justice David Maraga of failing to address the crisis.

They said three judges who have been handling cases at the High Court were transferred two months ago and their replacement has been delayed.

Mr Yego said due to lack of judges and magistrates, there is a backlog of more than 4,000 in Eldoret courts.

“Over 4,000 cases are pending in courts in this town due to lack of judges and magistrates. Many Kenyans are denied justice due to this delay,” said Mr Yego

He called on CJ Maraga to post new judges to the station immediately failure to which they will continue with the boycott and demonstrations.

Angry members of LSK stuck a banner at the High Court’s gate as they tried to block police from accessing the premises.

The officers had brought prisoners whose cases were scheduled to be heard on Monday morning.

MAGISTRATES

Eldoret High Court Resident Judge Kanyi Kimondo was transferred two months ago and replaced with Justice Hellen Omondi, who has been working in Homa Bay.

Though Justice Omondi reported to work in Eldoret on Monday, she was forced to return to Homa Bay as she was yet to clear her cases there.

“It is true that Justice Hellen Omondi has reported here but we are told she has requested for two weeks to go back to Homa Bay and clear her cases, which implies that we will have no judges in Eldoret for the next one week," Mr Yego said.

He said other than indequate judges, there is also a shortage of magistrates, which has made matters worse.

The magistrate court in Eldoret used to have 12 magistrates but half of them were transferred.

“It has become habit to transfer judges and magistrates from this region without replacements. This habit must stop," said the local LSK chairman.

According to LSK, the area needs more than five judges and 15 magistrates to manage the backlog.

Mr Yego said Eldoret has the second highest number of pending cases after Nairobi.