Meru law courts emerged top in speedy hearing and determination of cases in the country.
Meru resident Judge Afred Mabeya welcomed the ranking, saying it has taken concerted efforts of all the stakeholders in the judicial system, especially the court users committee.
He said despite major setbacks facing the station like congestion, poor infrastructure and lack of staff and judicial officers, they had done the best to deliver.
The performance management and measurement understanding evaluation report 2018/19, conducted by judiciary, declared Meru High Court’s Environment and Lands division the best in expeditiously hearing and ruling of land and environment matters for the second year running.
Justice Mabeya decried the huge number of cases, which he said were not commensurate with judicial officers in the station, which is among the most litigious in the country.
The court, headed by Lady Justice Lucy Mbugua, shone in the case load category of 500 cases and below with productivity of 307 cases, to beat ten others ranked in the evaluation report.
It was followed by Kakamega with 251 cases while Murang’a was ranked third with 124 cases.
The court retained position one after it was declared the best in 2017/2018, with posting a clearance rate of 268 per cent and a productivity of 694 cases.
The courts overcame challenges of congestion and high number of cases to emerge the top in clearance of criminal cases within 360 days.
It registered 75 per cent, 12 points ahead of its closest challenger Kisumu (63), Kiambu (60) Machakos (50) Kitale (40) and Embu (35).
Others are Kerugoya (32) Mombasa and Kericho tied at (29) and Murang’a (28), which completed the top ten in the category of courts with a caseload of above 1,000.
Three High Court judges in Meru were rated the best in the country in productivity, managing to clear 372 cases in caseload category of 1,000 during the year under review.
They are Resident Judge Alfred Mabeya, Justice Anne Ong’injo and Justice Francis Gikonyo.
In the overall performance of courts with a caseload of above 1,000 cases, Meru High Court’s criminal division was number two in the country.
Machakos led in the category with a composite score of 3.0 beating Meru and Nakuru with 3.110 and 3.117 respectively.
The three courthouses have 100 per cent performance among the top ten ranked in the category.
The court was also rated the best in clearance of civil cases, posting 353 per cent in clearance rate in the category of courts with over 1000 cases, followed by Nakuru with 273.
According to Justice Mabeya, the criminal division has 435 pending murder cases currently, with one case taking between one to two years to complete.
“I’m proud of my colleagues, the court users committee and staff. I want to thank them for hard work. The land and environment court has done exceptionally well and retained position one nationally."
