BY SAM ALFAN.
The Judiciary has pleaded for more fund allocation to the tune of Sh36.56 billion for the 2022/2023 budget.
Through the acting finance director Susan Oyatsi, the judiciary said funding to the justice chain sector players needs to be enhanced to enable facilitation of speedy delivery of justice and also for all government institutions to operate at the same level.
“The stakeholders in the justice chain should come together to review, harmonize and amend statutes governing adoption of ICT in court procedures,” she said.
She added that other agencies dealing with witnesses attending cases in court should be funded to meet part of their cost or expenses.
She further added that the judiciary has realized great strides in automation but continues to be hampered by inadequate funding which has affected ICT infrastructure and capacity building.
“The situation has been compounded by the fact that other stakeholders in the justice chain whom the judiciary relies upon to discharge its mandate have not achieved comparable levels of automation”, she added.
The Tribunals Bills that was to regulate the administration and functions of Tribunals, provides standardised procedures for the transition of Tribunals in the judiciary has not been finalised to date.
Judiciary has been underfunded over the years with its annual allocation being continuously reduced by half the required budget.
The underfunding has affected its operations and capital projects such construction of courts, expansion of courts, expansion and improvements of existing courts facilities and provisions of residential houses of judicial officers.
Others include administration of justice and recruitment plans where the judiciary is unable to recruit adequate number of judicial officers like judges, Magistrate and also staff that are required to effectively handle workload since the current staffing levels fail below the optimal number per judiciary establishment.
