Nyeri Court of Appeal says it now has no backlog of cases

Nyeri, Kenya: The Nyeri Court of Appeal is blazing the trail in clearing case backlog in the Judiciary, a trend that is now emerging in most courts across the country, says the Judiciary Media Service (JMS).

According to the JMS, the court’s Presiding Judge Justice Alnashir Visram has reportd that the Court of Appeal in Nyeri has cleared all cases that had been pending in the region and is now hearing the 2013-2014 cases “almost real time.”

In May alone, a statement sent to newsroom says, the court delivered 34 decisions that included judgments and rulings on civil and criminal matters and the cases that are now pending before the court are those filed during the month.

According to a status report filed by the court, the criminal matters pending as at May 31, 2014, include the records which were ready and set for hearing.

The Court of Appeal Registrar, Mr Moses Serem, said that the Nyeri court was able to dispense with cases efficiently due to a permanent bench that sit on a daily basis.

Serem added that the appellate courts are now dispensing with more cases than before with a 100 per cent rise in the disposal rate.

“The waiting period between filing and hearing of a case in the Court of Appeal has been reduced drastically as most cases are now being fast-tracked.” Said Mr Serem.

Nyeri Court of Appeal is currently a three-judge bench comprising of Justice Alnashir Visram as Presiding Judge, Justice Martha Koome and Justice James Otieno-Odek.

Since its establishment in 1977, the Court of Appeal sat permanently in Nairobi and as a circuit court when hearing appeals from its other five sub registries; Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru and Nyeri. The Chief Justice, Dr Willy Mutunga, last year fully devolved the court to Nyeri, Kisumu and Malindi.