JSC appoints 28 new High Court judges

By Isaiah Lucheli

Women took half of the 28 new High Court judge positions announced by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on Monday.

The announcement — the third step in remaking the Judiciary following the appointments of the Chief Justice and his Deputy, and the identification of Supreme Court judges — followed eight weeks of marathon interviews of 115 candidates.

Besides, the Judiciary got a new Registrar — Gladys Boss Shollei — to replace Lydia Achode Awino, who becomes one of the 28 newly appointed judges.

Shollei who is currently the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer at Interim Independent Electoral Commission will take charge of the administration of the entire Judiciary from the Supreme Court to the lower courts.

The appointment of the new judges is expected to give the Judiciary, perceived to be among the arms of Government tainted with corruption, a shot in the arm.

The significance of the new appointments is that it met and exceeded the minimum one-third gender threshold as provided in the Constitution and whose interpretation is the subject of court battle in the case of the appointment of judges to the seven-member Supreme Court Bench.

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, while making the announcement, explained that 14 women, 2 Kenyans in the Diaspora, a Kenyan European, a woman with albinism, 11 serving magistrates and advocates of the High Court had been recruited.

“We have picked candidates from rich diversities decreed by the Constitution and law, including gender, ethnicity, county, minorities and other forms of marginalisation. The new judges reflect this diversity,” he explained.

Reflect diversity

All cadres of serving magistrates and judges are expected to be vetted by the Judges and Magistrates Board to eliminate those who fail the integrity test before the constitution of the new-look Judiciary is completed.

President Kibaki is also expected to appoint a new Attorney-General to replace Mr Amos Wako in the next three weeks, followed by a new Police Inspector-General at a later date.

President Kibaki’s administration is keen to clean up the Judiciary to prove to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that Kenya’s reformed justice system is capable of handling the cases locally.

Apart from their high qualifications, other requirements in the Constitution strictly observed by the JSC when appointing the judges were gender, minorities and regional representation.

Principal and Chief magistrates serving in Nakuru, Kericho, Nyeri, Kiambu and Kibera were promoted alongside men and women picked from private practice.

On Monday, the CJ explained that the recruitment of the 28 candidates was done in strict compliance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Judicial Service Act.

He said the Commission had conducted a background checks on all the candidates and conducted interviews using a pre-agreed criteria and in an open and transparent manner.

“We invited Kenyans with any negative or positive information on the 115 candidates who had applied to volunteer the information. Some Kenyans sat and observed the process,” he explained.

He expressed optimism that the appointments would go a long way in addressing the backlog of cases that had dogged the Judiciary and tainted the justice system’s image.

“We had 45 judges of the High Court and they had been overwhelmed by the huge work load at the Judiciary. However, the appointment of the 28 and the computerisation of the Judiciary is set to change the situation,” he explained.

Pending cases

He said computerisation had commenced in majority of the country’s law courts.

“The Sh9.2 billion allocated to the Judiciary is the highest compared to the past financial years. With this money, we will be able to computerise the courts. The process began a few years ago and courts like Eldoret are already computerised,” he said.

Mutunga said the law was clear that the new judges would not undergo vetting, saying they were of high integrity and had been cleared by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for tax compliance and had paid their Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) loans.

Reacting to claims that there was a backlog of 817,000 cases in the courts, Mutunga said the Judiciary would institute an audit of all pending cases.

“I do not know where the figure 817,000 emanated from but we are in the process of getting the right figure of the pending cases”.

He said the Judiciary was in the process of appointing Commissioners of Assize with a view to addressing the backlog.

The CJ explained that the Supreme Court would be equipped with high tech equipment and its operation would be paperless.

The ages of the judges recruited ranged from 38 and 66, but majority are in their 40s.

The CJ explained that the blend between the serving magistrates, those from the world of academia and advocates would give the Judiciary renewed energy.