The Government has more than tripled allocation of development cash to the Judiciary, with the justice body set to receive Sh1.5 billion by the end of June.
The increase is contained in a new Treasury’s report on revenues and expenditure as of February.
Last year, Parliament dramatically slashed Judiciary’s allocation for development spending by 86 per cent, leaving it with a paltry Sh500 million, down from the Sh4 billion it had requested for.
The MPs’ decision to cut spending on capital assets angered Chief Justice David Maraga who said their work would be compromised by the budget cut.
“We are at a loss on what to do with the allocation as it is now. It means a number of projects, especially on construction across the country will literally stop affecting service delivery,” said Justice Maraga at the time.
However, President Kenyatta in a supplementary budget tabled in September last year allocated additional funds for the Judiciary’s development spending. So far, Treasury has disbursed a total of Sh607.4 million to the Judiciary for development activities, including infrastructure development and the establishment of High Court stations in all counties.
Justice Maraga has been pushing for the building of courts in a bid to keep up with the constitutional requirement that each county should have a High Court station in order to take justice closer to the people.
For recurrent expenditure, the Judiciary had been allocated Sh12.9 billion, bringing its total spending to around Sh13.4 billion, which Maraga noted was not enough to implement its projects.
He said the Judiciary had requested for Sh31.2 billion to support its operations in the 2018/19 financial year.
In his State of Nation address, President Kenyatta said the Government would allocate more funds to Judiciary and other law enforcement agencies to help in the war against graft.
The said it faced many challenges chief among them the lack of adequate facilities and infrastructure.
The National Government’s Budgetary Policy Statement capped the Judiciary’s budget at Sh17.3 billion.
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