BY SAM ALFAN.
Chief Justice Martha Koome has directed magistrates and Kadhis courts to strictly enforce the no-adjournment policy in cases presented before them.
Justice, who spoke at the second Annual Magistrates and Kadhis Colloquium that was attended by LSK President Eric Theuri, urged the courts to give priority to cases that have been pending in the system for more than three years.
“Such cases should be listed for mention before Judicial Officers for parties to take directions on hearing to tackle case backlog,” said CJ Koome.
CJ Koome also says courts must also promote proper handling of cause lists, to help in case management.
She emphasised that Daily Court Returns are crucial given that we are in the era of using data for all our operations and the returns are key to our data-enabled performance measurement and should be submitted promptly.
“There is need for a new approach to case management with Judicial Officers driving the movement of cases and not leaving this to the discretion of Advocates. No case file should lie idly in registries,” said Judiciary boss.
According to CJ, Judiciary need to move towards limiting the time we take in interlocutory applications and nudge parties towards moving directly to the hearing of suits on their merits.
“We should appreciate that the Judiciary is just but one institution in the chain that must coordinate, collaborate and engage in a principled manner with other actors involved in the justice system,” said the Chief Justice.
