Judiciary dismisses 8,000 cases in bid to clear backlog

The Judiciary dismissed more than 8,000 cases in the first four days of the Justice@Last initiative that targeted to clear old cases at the Civil Division of the High Court in Milimani, Nairobi.

By Thursday evening, 11,982 cases had been listed, with 8,750 dismissed.

Only 106 cases were given hearing dates, with another 3,092 found to have been finalised. Seven cases were transferred to the Environment and Land Division.

In the five-day programme that was launched by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, the Judiciary sought to clear more than 15,000 old cases by close of business yesterday. On Monday, each of the 14 judges assigned to deal with the cases handled an average of 215 cases, giving directions, including fixing hearing dates, and dismissing matters that were long over due.

A similar exercise took place at the Githunguri Law Courts and Milimani Commercial Court. Cases where no action has been taken for the past two years were mentioned before the judges for direction.