• Registrar Amadi allays fears Judiciary is at risk of losing the properties.
• Judiciary in the process of creating an inventory of all its properties.
The Judiciary is not in possession of the title deeds of most courts including the Supreme Court, MPs heard yesterday.
The Judiciary yesterday told the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee that a number of courts across the country do not even have valid titles.
Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Anne Amadi who is the Judiciary’s accounting officer told the committee chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi that the Supreme Court and Milimani courts are some of the courts whose titles are still being held by other public institutions.
The ownership of Kibera law courts is yet to be determined, the registrar said.
She said Judiciary however has instituted a bold step to secure the vital documents.
“The title deed for Milimani court initially belonged to Income Tax Department but we are trying to secure it while that of the Supreme Court we believe we are the owners of the land and we are in the process of ensuring that we get it.”
She was responding to audit queries raised by Auditor General Edward Ouko.
The registrar however allayed fears that Judiciary is at risk of losing the properties which are still not in their complete control.
“We do not see the risk of us losing the land but I will admit that this is a widespread problem that we are trying to address.”
In 2016, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga formed a committee to take stock of the Judiciary’s assets and the report of the team led by Justice Lydia Achode has already been forwarded to Chief Justice David Maraga.
“Judiciary did not have any inventory of all the assets it has but currently we are carrying out the audit to determine the value of the assets that we hold,” she said.
Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo, a member of the committee, called for an urgent move to secure all court stations in the country to avoid situations where third parties contest ownership of the pieces of the unsecured land.