There is corruption in the judiciary, says Chief Justice David Maraga

Chief Justice David Maraga (left) arrives for the Judges of the High Court workshop held at Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha. He said that he was keen to tackle corruption which has tainted the image of the judiciary. [Photo:Antony Gitonga/Standard]

The new Chief Justice David Maraga has admitted that corruption is rife in the judiciary but has promised to tackle it head on.

According to him ten percent of the staff in the judiciary including judges and clerks were involved in graft which was tainting the name of the institution.

He noted that some staff were guilty of abetting the vice noting that this has turned the judiciary into a punching bag.

"We have being accused of abetting corruption and as per my statistics around ten percent of our staff are involved in this vice," he said.

And to address this, Magara said that they would strengthen the office of the Ombutsman to investigate corruption cases.

"The office will investigate corruption cases and later hand them to JSC and we I shall take decisive action against any judge found guilty," he said.

He added that accused judges would be given ample time to defend themselves and challenged them to partner with him in fighting graft.

The CJ was addressing Judges of the High Court during the end of a four day workshop held at Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha.

He told them that the President and his deputy had raised concern over statutory orders being issued by some judges.

Maraga said that some of the orders were affecting development projects and funding and challenged the judges to be bear in mind the consequences of the orders.

"The President and his deputy have a point on this orders and they are challenging us to be fast in issuing judgements as we do to injunctions," he said.

He added that during his vetting by parliament, MPs had also raised their concern over alleged interference by the judiciary in their duties.

"The MPs are accusing judiciary of interfering with their operations but I reminded them that the court has no jurisdiction," he said.

On case backlog, the CJ said that there are over 600,000 cases pending in various courts across the country some lasting for over ten years.

He said that he had set an advisory committee to help address the cases adding that they would start with cases that were over five years old.

"We plan to address and resolve this cases by one year and am appealing to you judges to be firm and make sure that we deal with the backlog," he said.

The CJ who was speaking in his first public function said that there was a major outcry from the public over the high number of cases pending in the courts.

"You are the face of judiciary and am urging you to dispense away with these cases as some are holding back businesses and affecting investments," he said.