BY SAM ALFAN.
Judges and magistrates will be promoted or disciplined in accordance with their performance evaluation, Chief Justice David Maraga has said.
Justice Maraga, who chairs the Judicial Service Commission, said the Judiciary will hold an annual event to assess, recognize and reward best performers.
The Chief Justice called for commitment of all Judges, judicial officers and staff to pursue an effective performance-based management system and play their role in the Judiciary transformation agenda initiated by his predecessor, Dr Willy Mutunga.
He said the Judiciary had fully embraced performance contracting, despite doubts and open hostility, long after the public service started engaging in 2005.
Justice Maraga was speaking at the Supreme Court in Nairobi when he officially launched the first performance evaluation report conducted in the Judiciary during the 2015/2016 financial year. The major highlights of the report were success stories on case clearance rate, backlog reduction and general productivity of Judges and Magistrates across the courts in the country.
“The JSC takes the findings of this report seriously and will use it as a reference point in its decision-making processes, including promotions. The JSC will come up with a reward and sanction mechanism as part of institutionalizing performance management and measurement in the Judiciary,” Justice Maraga said. The performance evaluation was launched on April 15, 2015 and was undertaken between July 2015 and June last year.
“The launch of this report today is also significant in many respects to our judges, judicial officers and staff, on one hand, as well as our key stakeholders in the justice system and the public, on the other. It gives us a scientific and objective basis to assess the performance of our courts and those who lead them. It engenders a spirit of positive competition, which will improve on our service delivery standards to the public,” he said.
Earlier in the day , the Chief Justice formally rolled out the Court Anexxed Mediation program that has been successfully tested in the High Court’s Family and Commercial divisions in Nairobi.
“The people of Kenya need to know that Litigation alone as a form of dispute resolution is no longer sustainable. We need to educate the masses that there are easier and faster ways to resolve disputes,” he said during the official breakfast ceremony.
Justice Maraga recalled that Sh500million that had been locked up in litigation had been released back to the economy through successful conclusion of 25 commercial disputes through mediation.
The Commercial division is currently holding cases valued at Sh4.4billion that can be resolved through mutual agreement by the parties, he observed.
http://www.judiciary.go.ke/portal/blog/post/judiciary-concludes-the-first-matter-under-the-court-annexed-mediation-project
