Courts that help mint millions for Judiciary coffers

The Milimani Law Court and Milimani Criminal Court collected a total of Sh450 million in fines and fees, contributing almost a quarter of the Judiciary’s entire 2017/2018 revenue haul.

The last financial year has been a tough one for the Judiciary as budget cuts weighed heavily on operations and projects in various law courts across the country.

Chief Justice David Maraga had asked the National Treasury for Sh36 billion for the 2017/2018 financial year to cover the anticipated spike in activity due to poll petitions.

However, Treasury only allocated 40 per cent of this, leaving the Judiciary with a significant hole in its budget.

“Reduction in development budget for the Judiciary impacted negatively on the financing of the ongoing infrastructural projects such as courts and ICT projects,” explains the Judiciary in the latest State of the Judiciary report.

“This resulted in failure to complete some of the capital projects since some of the payment certificates could not be honoured.”

Overall, the shortfall in both recurrent and development allocations saw the Judiciary rack up some Sh520 million in pending bills.

It did not help matters that the Judiciary missed its target for in-house revenue of Sh2.9  billion by Sh828 million.

The Judiciary’s primary source of revenue is court fees and fines and with an increase in cases filed during the 2017/2018 financial year, there was nevertheless a Sh106 million increase in overall revenue from the previous year.

“The comparative growth in fees could be attributed to growth in filed cases from 344,180 cases filed in the FY 2016/2017 to 402,243 cases filed in FY 2017/2018 and an increase in the number of cases resolved from 88 per cent in FY 2016/17 to 92 per cent during the review period,” said the Judiciary in its report.

Court fines attributed the bulk of the revenue haul at Sh1.1 billion while revenue from court fees stood at Sh954 million.

The Milimani Law Court and Milimani Criminal Court collected a total of Sh450 million in fines and fees, contributing almost a quarter of the Judiciary’s entire 2017/2018 revenue haul.

Fines paid at Milimani Law court stood at Sh129 million with Sh115 million paid out in court fees.

At the Milimani Criminal Court, Sh206 million was paid in court fees while a paltry Sh80,000 was collected from court fines.

The Kibera Law Court was also another top earner for the Judiciary raking in Sh68.7 million in court fines over the 2017/2018 financial year. The law courts in Makadara, Mavoko, Mombasa and Naivasha rounded up the list of top earners bringing in Sh43 million, Sh42 million, Sh33 million, and Sh33 million respectively.

The Judiciary also collects deposits from third parties including from bail payments in ongoing cases and funds retained for construction projects.  

“By June 30, 2018, the Judiciary held court deposits and other funds held in trust for third parties amounting to Sh5.1 billion,” explained the Judiciary in part. “This was an increase from the Sh4.3 billion that was held at the end of FY 2016/2017.”

The Milimani Law Courts contributed the biggest chunk by far to the Judiciary deposit account at Sh1.4 billion, followed by the Makadara Law Courts (Sh291 million), Milimani Criminal Court (Sh241 million) and Court of Appeal (Sh235million).

“Deposits have in the past been an issue of major financial management concern,” explains the Judiciary in part.

“Reconciliation of deposits in the Judiciary is an ongoing exercise to ensure that outstanding deposits are reconciled to the bank balances.”