Kisii law courts had a backlog of 16,000 cases in 2015, a judge told the public during the Judiciary Open Week on Tuesday.
Justice John Mutungi said the magistrate's court had the highest of cases standing at 10,000, the High Court had more than 2,500 while the Land court had 3,500.
He said the backlog in the magistrate court has since been reduced to 5,000 by last month, while those in the High Court had been reduced to 500.
Cases in the Land court had been reduced to 720. Mutungi attributed this to the efforts of judges and magistrates.
He attributed the pile up of cases to an unwillingness by residents to embrace alternative dispute resolution mechanisms adding some cases were wrongly before the court.
Governor James Ongwae, who officially opened the week-long forum, attributed the high number of land cases to the growing population.
“Residents need to understand the importance of embracing dispute resolution mechanisms because some cases can easily be resolved using the process,” Ongwae said.
On a request by Mutungi to Ongwae to allocate land towards the construction of a modern court, the governor said the county has already identified the same but it is upon the court to Gazette it.
“The land for construction of a modern court is available. It is upon the station to gazette it so that work can start,” Ongwae said.
Touching on cases filed by individuals against the county government, he said his administration is ready for mediation.
Edited by R.Wamochie
