More courts as Kenya's Judiciary spends Sh500m to oil wheels of justice

The Judicial Service Commission has set aside Sh500 million for the construction and rehabilitation of Courts in Lower Eastern and Kajiado regions.

Out of this, Sh280 million will be spent in putting up a High Court in Kajiado while another Sh100m for the construction of another in Wote town in Makueni County.

Another Sh80 million will be utilized in the renovation of the old Court in Machakos while Sh20 million will be spent to renovate the Makindu Law Courts.

The revelations were made by the JSC commissioners after the completion of their tour of Courts in the two regions.

Commissioner Aggrey Muchelule, who is also a judge of the High Court, said some Sh2 million had been set aside for the rehabilitation of Kyuso Law Court, Sh2.8m for Kangundo Law Court while another Sh2.5million will be spent to rehabilitate the Mavoko Law Courts.

“In some of these areas construction has already began and we hope upon completion, they will expedite delivery of justice to Kenyans,” he said.

He said their main plan was to ensure that within the next five years, all Counties will have High Courts.

“In lower Eastern region, for instance, there are many environment and land matters which can only be heard at the High court,” he said. “This means that people from these regions have to travel to Machakos to attend to their court cases.”

Those who attended the regional visits included Commissioners Mohammed Warsame, Prof. Margret Kobia, Florence Mwangangi and JSC Registrar Winfrida Mokaya.

They also paid a courtesy call to Governors Alfred Mutua (Machakos), Dr Julius Malombe (Kitui) David Nkedianye (Kajiado) and Prof. Kivutha Kibwana (Makueni).

Commissioner Warsame however urged County governments to allocate them land to pave the way for the construction of the Courts.

“We have the money what we only need is land to be allocated to the Judiciary for construction to commence,” he said.

He noted that Makueni County has already allocated four acres in Wote and a similar number of acres in Makindu towns meaning construction will commence in the course of the year.

“We have allocated Sh100 million and Sh20 million for courts in these regions,” he noted.

Commissioner Warsame urged county governments to participate in the administration of justice by setting aside funds for the sector.

“We have Court Users Committees where we need the participation of county government to advice on where we need new courts,” he said.

Governor Mutua said his county has already set aside five acres to develop a modern judiciary complex in the new Machakos City.

He said his administration will embrace the alternative dispute resolution mechanism mooted by the Judiciary to ease its current backlog of cases.