The Judiciary has recalled Court of Appeal judges working in Kisumu, Mombasa and nyeri to Nairobi citing lack of enough judges.
In a statement, the Court of Appeal President justice William Ouko said that this was occasioned by the retirement of several judges, appointment of others to higher Government offices and the sudden death of Justice Otieno Odek.
The judges will relocate to Nairobi as from January 13, 2020.
“Pursuant to the provisions of section 13 of the Court of Appeal Act, 2015 and in consultation with the Hon. The Chief Justice, it has been decided that, as long as the situation with regard to the number of judges in the Court of Appeal remains, the sitting of the Court outside Nairobi are suspended with effect from 13th January 2020.”
The statement further indicates that the affected stations will now run from Nairobi through circuit sessions to be conducted once every month to each station.
Justice Ouko said that the number of appellate judges has reduced from 27 to 15 in very short time which means that the country has only 12 appeal judges who sit full time and out of the 12 three are serving in Mombasa and Kisumu.
This comes barely a month after Chief justice David Maraga disagreed with the national treasury over judiciary budget cuts and the delay by the president to appoint judges whose names were submitted by the Judicial Service Commission.
However, President Uhuru declined to formally appoint them citing integrity issues on some of the nominees.
