• The office of the Chief Justice David Maraga has ranked Meru court as the best in performance in terms of case backlog clearance.
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The Judiciary in Meru has been ranked the best in clearing backlog of cases.
Meru judges, magistrates, lawyers and litigants on Monday celebrated the performance. On Friday, the office of the Chief Justice conferred them with certificates under different categories. This was in relation to the Performance Management and Measurement Understanding Evaluation report of 2017-18.
The Meru magistrates include Hannah Ndung'u, Lucy Ambasi, Evans Mbicha, Maureen Odhiambo, Stella Abuya, Monica Maroro while the judges are Alfred Mabeya, Ann Ong'injo and Francis Gikonyo.
Presiding Judge Mabeya said the awards were a great honour to judges, magistrates, advocates and litigants.
Mabeya said a few years back the station had to convert a toilet into magistrates’ office, but this never deterred their commitment to law and to deliver justice.
“We promise to work extra hard. There are 6,000 cases filed annually. Two years ago, there had been 7,000 cases, but we are remaining with only 3,000 cases. People of Meru are very litigious. We offered to sacrifice and deliver justice to Meru people,” he said.
The High Court in Meru was ranked second out of 48 stations countrywide in the overall performance of courts with caseload category of above 500 cases.
“On hearing and determination of criminal cases within 360 days caseload category of above 500 cases, the High Court received a certificate for being the best for hearing and determining 68 per cent of all criminal cases. I thank the ODPP, the judges, magistrates and staff for the achievement,” Mabeya said describing the achievement as not mean but hard work, determination and collaboration among all of the involved stakeholders.
Mabeya said the Meru Environment and Labour court (ELC) had resolved the highest number of cases against those filed at a rate of 268 per cent followed by Kakamega at 134 per cent, thus the reduction in case backlog.
He said Meru ELC was the best ranked in the Judge’s productivity having achieved productivity of 694 cases.
Meru chief magistrate Hannah Ndung’u termed the achievement as bringing justice to the people of Meru at the right time.
She said Meru was the overall best performing court in caseload reduction category above 2,000 cases.
“We are excited to be ranked best in this category. We are grateful to LSK, court staff and litigants,” Ndung’u said.
“Meru magistrate’s court was the best performing court with a case clearance rate, civil cases of 237 per cent, followed by Embu at 225 per cent,” the report seen by the Star reads.
Meru Bar Association chairman Ken Muriuki said three years back the court was poorly performing.
“We will soar extremely high, this is where we belong. Three years back, the court was ranked poorly due to many things that have so far been resolved. We nowadays do a background check on transfers,” Muriuki said.