The Judiciary is bracing itself for tough times ahead after MPs approved drastic budget cuts that could hamper its operations in the wake of the renewed war on graft.
Despite pleas by Chief Justice David Maraga, the National Assembly decided to slash the Judiciary’s budget from Sh17.3 billion to Sh14.8 billion in the next financial year. Ironically, this comes against the backdrop of a vicious anti-graft offensive by the government.
The Sh2.5 billion budget cut means the Judiciary must devise austerity measures. It said yesterday it will have to halt some of its ongoing projects across
the country.
“We shall not be able to complete the ongoing constructions. We are also likely to incur interests, penalties and litigation costs to the detriment of the taxpayer,” chief registrar Anne Amadi said yesterday.
“We will continue to dispense justice from the dilapidated sheds we call courts.”
The Budget and Appropriations committee chaired by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa reduced the Judiciary’s development budget from Sh4 billion to Sh1.5 billion.
It did not increase the Judiciary’s recurrent budget.
The courts will be unable to hire more magistrates, judges and other officers or buy cars in the next financial year.
The committee retained the recurrent expenditure vote at Sh13.25 billion. This could be a major blow to its efforts to expedite delivery
of justice.
Maraga had requested more cash to build new courts and hire more magistrates and judges.
During his state of the Judiciary speech last December, he cited insufficient budget allocation as an impediment — an average of one per cent of the national budget for over the past five years.
“In this financial year, it slipped to 0.99 per cent. This falls below the internationally recommended Judiciary budget of 2.5 per cent of the national budget,” Maraga said.
“Given our staff establishment of 5,619, our presence in every part of the country where we sit every single day and our people-focused transformation agenda, we need a significant increment in our budget allocation.”
National Treasury CS Henry Rotich is expected to deliver the budget in Parliament on Thursday. It has emerged the cuts could be part of a plot by the Jubilee administration to ‘fix’ the Judiciary.
The administration has previously said the Judiciary is “rogue and biased” against the ruling party. Through its political wing, Jubilee Party, it has often accused the courts of having been taken hostage by cartels and
judicial activists.
In February, Jubilee secretary general Raphael Tuju accused Maraga of almost burning down Kenya after the August 8 presidential election was nullified.
In an open letter to the CJ, Tuju said the judiciary showed evident signs of “bias, impunity and
poor leadership”.
“With all due respect, may I state the following, not to provoke you, but to submit that no powers can be absolute. Irresponsible actions from the Judiciary, Executive or Parliament can burn this
country,” he said.
The letter appears to read from Uhuru’s script when he warned they “shall revisit” the conduct of the courts.
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