The Bungoma law courts are holding a service week in a bid to ease a backlog of cases.
The service week began on August 5 and is set to end next week.
Presiding Judge Stephen Riech told the media in his chambers that all matters listed for hearing will proceed. By the end of the exercise it is hoped that 109 criminal appeals and 28 civil appeals will have been concluded, he said.
"More personnel have been called to conclude matters that would have been ordinarily hard to finish in our usual calendar,” Riech said.
Justice Bwonwong' a from the High Court in Narok Justice Wanjiku Cherere from the High Court in Kisumu will work on cases until the service week ends. The service week began on August 5 and is set to end next week.
Riech said they want the station to attain the goal of hearing and concluding murder cases in one year and appeals within six months. To expedite the cases, all courts will be hearing a maximum of 12 witnesses per day.
The Bungoma High court has only one judge and 119 pending murder cases.
Riech said it takes between two and three years to complete a murder case and without this initiative, 1,061 civil matters and 559 criminal cases at the High Court in Bungoma will take longer than expected to be concluded.
Riech said the number of teenagers charged with murder has increased. He said on parents to take responsibility for the discipline of their children.
He urged residents to seek alternative ways of solving disputes rather than always running to the courts.
“In cases involving families, we implore people to solve the cases using their clan elders especially in matters of succession to make courts less congested," he said.
The judge decried the increasing cases of incest and defilement in the region.
