Chief Justice Martha Koome has formally taken the oath of office at the Supreme Court building.
The Judiciary held an Assumption of Office ceremony on Monday to hand over the Instruments of Power to the incoming Chief Justice.
During the event, the new Chief Justice committed to work closely with all stakeholders, including the other two branches of government.
She stated that the country was dealing with an unacceptable degree of case backlog.
“We are still grappling with unacceptably high levels of case backlog despite the efforts of the last ten (10)years that had significantly reduced the number of old cases. CJ Maraga’s tenure focused on all courts concluding all cases that were five (5)years old and above. We will continue that trajectory and ensure that at any given time, no case should be in the justice system for longer than three (3) years. This is a target that is possible to achieve if we all embraced a case management system and the multi-door approaches that are now available to us such as the court users committees, court annexed mediation, small claims court and alternative justice systems.” She noted
In attendance was Kenya’s top legal minds and female pioneers in the law fraternity, including Kenya’s first Female Magistrate Effy Owuor
