Judiciary to send 12 Court of Appeal judges to Kisumu

Alarmed by the increasing backlog of cases at the Court of Appeal in Kisumu, the leadership of the court is set to send 12 judges to handle pending appeals.

The court has about 1,500 cases with a majority of them dating back to 2015, even as detainees continue to protest the lengthy delays in the hearing and determination of their cases.

Speaking after touring the court yesterday, President of the Court of Appeal William Ouko said his office would establish four benches of judges to handle the cases.

The judges will complement the work of Justices Asike Makhandia, Patrick Kiage and Otieno Odek, who have been transferred to the court from Nairobi.

“We will send 12 judges for one week to clear all appeals and applications,” said Mr Ouko.

He noted that the shortage in the number of Court of Appeal judges affected service delivery.

The judges are expected to come to Kisumu for the appeals before July.

In 2017, the court struggled to handle the several elections petitions that were filed before it, with the Judiciary also intervening to help dispense the cases.

Last February, inmates at the Kodiaga prison narrated to the Ombudsman the frustrations they faced in their attempts to access justice at the appellate court.