Chief Justice Martha Koome has expressed concern about the government’s failure to release judge’s allowances for the last six months.
Speaking at the High Court Leaders Conference in Mombasa on June 7, Koome said it is an embarrassment that despite the judges performing their assigned duties, they have not been compensated, which is killing their morale.
At the same time, the chief justice expressed disappointment over a section of contractors across the country’s failure to meet the required standards, citing the construction of Mombasa’s Tower of Justices as an example of a failed project in which the contractor went missing.
On the other hand, she urged judges to expedite the process of dealing with the backlog of cases, claiming that over 84,000 cases are pending in the high courts, with 19,000 of them lasting more than three years.
“I also urge the High Court to expedite implementation of the recommendations from the Corruption Risk Assessment, which are contained in the EACC’s Report on Systemic Audit of Our Registry Operations, which we launched last month,” Koome stated.
Principal Judge Erick Ogolla, for his part, agreed with CJ, stating that some judges have been delaying releasing judgements for more than three years.
