Judicial Service Commission to recruit more judges

Judicial Service Commission (JSC) will April commence recruitment of 20 more judges of the Land and Environment division of the High Court to manage numerous land cases pending in courts throughout the country.
Commission (JSC) vice chair, Mercy Ndeche, said the move will go a long way in easing the pressure of case backlog, majority of which have taken too long to solve as a result of inadequate judges.
Speaking on Tuesday when the commission visited Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga in his office, Ms. Ndeche however said the recruitment exercise and posting of new judges will take approximately three months.
She said Nyeri particularly was in dire need of these services as a result of a huge number of land related cases being filed.
Alongside staffing, the vice chair said the commission had also embarked on the process of building more courts countrywide to ensure justice is brought closer to the people.
“Our vision as the judiciary is to have a court in each and every sub-county in the country,” said the vice chair.
Towards this end, Ms. Ndeche announced that JSC will soon start construction of a magistrate’s court in Kieni Constituency after the county government donated half an acre piece of land in Mweiga town for that purpose.
“This is a move we have taken in the spirit of devolution of bringing services closer to the people away from the capital,” said chair.
On his part, Governor Kahiga said his government will partner with the judiciary in ensuring the vision of bringing services closer to wananchi is realized by donating more land whenever called upon.
“We are prepared to partner with the judiciary any time to ensure justice is served for all and at a proximal point,” said the governor.
The county had previously donated another parcel of land for the relocation of Mukurwe-ini law courts.
He at the same time challenged the National Assembly to consider allocating the Judiciary more funds to meet its obligations as well as the expectations of the citizenry.
Meanwhile, Ms. Ndeche said the commission had postponed a meeting planned for this week to discuss petitions filed against top judges of the apex court.
She said the meeting which was scheduled to take place on Thursday will be held next week since the commission chair, Chief Justice David Maraga will be attending the State of the Nation address by the President in parliament.
The commission is so far considering two new petitions, one filed against the Chief Magistrate for gross violation of the constitution tabled by one Yusuf Ibrahim.
By Samuel Waititu