- The Judiciary has a resource gap of Sh19.6 billion, translating to 53 per cent of its total resource requirement for FY 2020-2021/
- World Bank programme that has largely supported funding of capital projects is coming to an end in October.
The financial woes facing the Judiciary are far from over after it emerged that its budgetary allocation in the next financial year might be half the amount it has proposed.
It was not immediately clear if or how the dramatically reduced funding would affect the Judiciary's swift handling of corruption cases.
The Judiciary has a resource gap of Sh19.6 billion, which translates to 53 per cent of the total resource requirement for the financial year 2020-2021.Anne Amadi, Chief Registrar of the Judciary
Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Anne Amadi told the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee on Thursday the Judiciary proposed Sh37.4 billion for the next financial year but the Budget Policy Statement allocated only Sh17.4 billion.
Of the proposal, Sh30.6 billion was to go to recurrent expenditure while Sh6.7 billion would be allocated for development.
“The Judiciary has a resource gap of Sh19.6 billion, which translates to 53 per cent of the total resource requirement for the financial year 2020-2021,” Amadi said.
She told the committee that a World Bank programme, which has largely supported funding of capital projects in the Judiciary from the 2013-2014 financial year to date, was coming to an end in October this year.
“This implies that without enhanced government funding, capital projects in the Judiciary will not be initiated and where ongoing, they will stall,” she testified.
During the 2019-2020 financial year, the Judiciary requested Sh31.2 billion but Parliament allocated Sh17.3 billion, forcing the third arm of government to suspend some development projects and services.
Due to financial constraints, the Judiciary last year suspended tens of nationwide mobile courts meant to bring justice closer to the people. Also suspended was the digitisation of hundreds of millions of records.
Digitisation would have ensured easy search, retrieval of files, a more efficient registration process, automation of filing of returns and speeding up the delivery of justice.
Effect on graft cases
Legislators said they hoped reduced funding would not impede the war against corruption.
The Judiciary Service and Open Day weeks were also suspended. During these functions, judges and supporting staff work long beyond the required hours to clear a huge backlog of cases and carry out civic education.
On Thursday, Amadi listed priority areas that she said needed additional funding.
She said Sh4 billion is needed for personal emoluments and compensation of employees.
She added that Sh1.2 billion is needed for automation of court processes, which include revenue collection, deposit management, digitisation of court records and rolling out of Case Management systems in all court stations.
Amadi further said the Judiciary needs Sh400 million to open new magistrate's court stations at the constituency level and establish mobile courts in far-flung areas.
She said in order to improve access to justice, the Judiciary needs to establish Courts of Appeal in Nakuru, Eldoret and Meru and to recruit judges, magistrates and tribunal members.
Kisumu West MP Olago Aluoch said he regretted the Government might not be able to meet the needs of the Judiciary unless it gets more funds from donors.
“Unless we get donors, you will have to take far less than what you had anticipated,” he said.
The committee asked Amadi to come back with a figure that she considered a bare minimum.
“Please come back to us with an amount you think should be the least the government can give,” Aluoch said.
Legislators said they hoped reduced funding would not impede the war against corruption.
(Edited by V. Graham)