The Judiciary will prioritise 469 pending corruption cases in an attempt to recover assets worth Sh11.4 billion.
The pending cases in various courts mostly relate to recovery of public land.
Chief Justice Martha Koome, who met officials of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in her office on Monday, assured Kenyans that her administration will pursue timely delivery of justice.
“Judges must take individual responsibility with a proper case management system,” Koome told officials led by EACC boss Twalib Mbarak.
During an address to judges of the environment and land court last week, the CJ said she would ensure that no case stays in a trial court beyond three years, or in the case of appellate courts, one year.
Justice Koome told the EACC officials that magistrates who were recently transferred from the anti-corruption court will be allowed to finalise partly-heard cases before moving to their new work stations.
She emphasised that courts must remain accountable and efficient to meet the aspirations of the public.
During the meeting, the EACC officials informed the Chief Justice that some of the corruption cases have been in court for 15 years.
“When cases take too long in court witnesses die, some retire from public service and others can’t remember details and we end up losing the case,” the EACC’s director of Field Services Jackson Mue said.
He explained that the EACC had finalised 273 cases with a conviction rate of 62 per cent between 2015 and 2020.
The commission was also able to recover assets in cash, movable and immovable property amounting to Sh17 billion and averted a further loss of Sh38 billion through proactive investigations.
“Asset recovery is critical in creating deterrence and efficiency as the threshold required is on a balance of probability, unlike the criminal cases,” Mue said.
The EACC receives 3,500 complaints annually on corruption for action through its headquarters, 11 regional offices and service desks in 50 huduma centres across the country.
The EACC boss called for greater collaboration with the Judiciary and asked the Chief Justice to operationalise anti-corruption registries in other towns.
“The current practice is that all anti-corruption related petitions and forfeiture of unexplained assets are filed with the anti-corruption and economic crimes registry in Nairobi” Mbarak said.
He also proposed an enhanced partnership on corruption and promotion of integrity.
“This will involve development of an anti-corruption policy for the Judiciary, constitution of a corruption prevention committee to spearhead the corruption prevention/integrity agenda, corruption risk assessment and capacity building on corruption prevention,” he said.
The EACC has faced challenges in it work ranging from politicisation and ethnicisation of the war against corruption, inadequate enforcement mechanisms of Chapter 6 of the Constitution and slow judicial processes.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
