Budget: Judiciary gets short end of the stick in funds

The Judiciary has no reason to smile about the budget, with its allocation falling short of the promises made by successive administrations.

The third arm of government is expected to get Sh27.7 billion in the 2025-26 financial year.

Conversely, MPs allocated themselves Sh47.9 billion for the 2025-2026 financial year.

Chief Justice Martha Koome’s headaches include expanding the Judiciary’s footprints, hiring judges and magistrates across the country, and using technology to facilitate access to justice.

President William Ruto, in his inaugural speech on September 13, 2022, claimed that Kenya Kwanza would increase the Judiciary’s share by three billion each year.

This came against the backdrop of his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to have the Judiciary operate its own fund drawn from the national budget after years of underfunding it.

Nevertheless, the fine print of the Ruto and Raila Odinga’s broad-based government funds is yet another documented broken promise.

In 2023-2024 financial year, the Judiciary was allocated Sh22.43 billion, up from Sh 21.13 billion.

This year, the Budget and Appropriations Committee approved Sh27.7 billion, of which Sh1 billion will go toward hiring new judges and judicial officers.

The Judiciary has been fighting to have 25 per cent of the total budget.

When the Judiciary Fund was approved, it was expected that it would receive at least Sh75 billion to spend independently.

Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani announced that the Judiciary Fund will be fully operational on July 1, 2022, ending the long wait for the Koome-led institution.

This year, the Judiciary needed Sh40.1 billion, of which the recurrent requirement is Sh31.6 billion, and a development vote of Sh8.5 billion.

The Sh31.6 billion is allocated for clearing the case backlog, establishing new courts, automating court processes, facilitating special benches and circuits, mobile courts, leasing motor vehicles, and covering recruitment and operational costs.

Justice Koome’s predecessor David Maraga had been battling to get the Fund.  Justice Maraga requested at least Sh75 billion, which constitutes 25 per cent of the Sh3 trillion budget. He proposed that the funding could be gradual, starting from 1.5 per cent.

He also projected that each county would have a courthouse within 10 years if the Treasury allocated Sh5 billion to the Judiciary for development. 

“Even though the Judiciary is an arm of Government, it is not demanding much. Out of a budget of about 3 trillion, give us just 2.5 per cent and we will dispose of cases within 2 years of their filing. Give us a development vote of about Sh 5 billion a year and we will construct courts all over the country in 10 years,” pleaded Maraga. 

However, the situation on the ground was different; he received only half of the requested amount, Sh 47 billion to work with over three years. To construct the courts in 47 counties, he received Sh50 million.

The CJ’s bigger headache is on how to speed up the wheels of justice. She needs more judges and magistrates but her hands are tied by lack of  resources.

Last year, the Judicial Service Commission cancelled a recruitment process of Court of Appeal and High Court judges it had initiated.