Parliamentary Justice and Legal Affairs Committee has disputed key proposals of a taskforce established to spearhead reforms in the Judiciary.
The House team rejected a proposal to employ commissioners of assize, among others.
The committee now says employing commissioners of assize is a waste of money, especially before enactment of comprehensive reforms of the Judiciary. The committee said this option had been tried before without success.
In a progress report the task force, which was established by Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo, discloses Kenya suffers a chronic shortage of magistrates with only 280 employed against Tanzania’s 4,000. The task force chaired by High Court Judge William Ouko proposes employment of 554 magistrates and 84 judges.
Modernise courts
However, it says poor pay dissuades many lawyers from joining the Judiciary as magistrates. New magistrates earn Sh35,000.
The task force wants the Judiciary allocated one per cent of the national budget annually to modernise courts, build new courts and employ additional staff.
Besides, the report notes that the Judiciary is caught in a web of corruption and technological time warp, partly responsible for the 800,000 backlog of cases — of which 80 per cent are traffic offences. Ouko said the 2003 sacking of judges and magistrates exacerbated the backlog.
The report said past appointments to the Judiciary "were most opaque" and proposes a new hiring method after advertisement and interview by the proposed Judicial Service Commission (JSC) composed of Law Society of Kenya representatives and private sector without the CJ.
The report also recommends the commission should have a role in the sacking and discipline of judges.
When Justice and Legal Affairs Committee chairman Abdikadir Mohamed (Mandera Central, Safina) questioned the removal of the CJ from the JSC as suggested by the task force, members Evans Monari of LSK and Wilfred Nderitu of ICJ said the Chief Justice could be retained provided he or she does not become automatic chairman of the commission.
MPs Mutava Musyimi (Gachoka, PNU), Abdikadir, Njoroge Baiya (Githunguri, Safina) and George Nyamweya (Nominated) opposed task force proposals disallowing parliamentary approval of new judges approved by JSC and appointed by the President.
The task force said giving Parliament that role "will politicise the Judiciary and make judges owe allegiance to Parliament".
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