JSC kicks off recruitment drive for new court judges

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is facing acute shortage of justices against the constitutional threshold of 30 judges for the past five years.

The top Kenyan court will next week start the recruitment of 20 new judges for the Environment and Land Court in a bid to ease the backlog of at least 20,867 pending cases.

According to the commission’s vice chairperson Mercy Deche the recruitment will kick off from Tuesday and will take about three months.

She said that many pending cases have been in the judicial process for more than five years a move she pointed doesn’t argue well for the justice process.

Speaking in Kirinyaga after a courtesy call on Deputy Governor Peter Ndambiri, Ms. Deche said the county is one of the regions with a high number of land-related matters that need to be attended urgently.

She said JSC’s vision is to have a court in every sub-county so as to take services closer to the people and away from the capital.

Ms Deche who was accompanied by all JSC members apart from Chief Justice revealed that many judicial projects funded by the government are lagging behind due to financial constraints.

She said that some of the projects are 50-60% complete noting that enough budget is required to complete the projects and devolve justice system at grassroots.

She however pointed that project funded by world and areal most compete with most of them being 90% complete.

To ensure court services are not disrupted, the officers will attend the conference in two groups. The first group of magistrates will attend from April 7 to 11, while the second group, from April 14 to 18.