Justice Ouko was installed on Tuesday at a ceremony presided over by Chief Justice David Maraga at the Supreme Court/COURTESY
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 27 – Justice William Ouko has assumed office as President of the Court of Appeal following his election by colleague judges in March.
Justice Ouko was installed on Tuesday at a ceremony presided over by Chief Justice David Maraga at the Supreme Court.
The position fell vacant after Justice Paul Kihara was nominated Attorney General by President Uhuru Kenyatta on February 13 following the resignation of Prof Githu Muigai, and subsequently sworn-in on March 28.
The position of President of the Court of Appeal is provided for under Article 164 (2) of the Constitution.
Justice Ouko secured the position after garnering 16 votes beating Justice Alnashir Visram who secured four votes.
During the March election, Justice Mohammed Warsame was re-elected the Court of Appeal representative at the Judicial Service Commission.
Speaking at his installation on Tuesday, Justice Ouko pledged to lead Court of Appeal judges in expediting the hearing of some 4,349 pending cases in a bid to ensure cases that are older than five years are concluded by the end of the year.
“We have firm plans to dispose of all civil appeals which are older than five years by December 2018. God willing, it is our desire to continue this trend until appeals and applications in this court are heard real-time in the next one year,” he pledged.
Justice Ouko, however, called for the hiring of more Court of Appeal judges to increase efficiency.
“With 19 instead of 30 judges in post, we are at the brink of violating Article 164 (1) of the Constitution which sets the minimum number of Justices of Appeal at 12,” the head of the appellate court remarked.
With only a total of 158 judges serving in the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and High Courts according to the Administration of Justice Report (SOJAR) 2016-2017, Kenya’s judge to population ratio stands at 1:304,000.
With 421 magistrates countrywide, the magistrate to citizen ratio would stand at 1:115,000 going by World Bank projections of the country’s population which was pegged at 48.5 million in 2016.
Ouko raised concerns over what he termed as unilateral budget cuts which he said had the effect of undermining the efficiency and independence of the Judiciary at a time when court expansion and capacity building programs are running.
He cited the proposed construction of a Court of Appeal building in Upper Hill and digitization of the court as capital intensive programs that could not be implemented if the Judiciary is cash-strapped.
“Accommodated in the Supreme Court building, the Court of Appeal is presently squashed in some corner in the building. The long-hand method of recording proceedings in court has contributed significantly to the delays we are experiencing in the Court,” he contended.
Judiciary’s funding was significantly reduced in the 2018-2019 budget presented to the National Assembly on June 14 to stand at Sh15.2 billion down from Sh18 billion allocated in the 2017-2018 budget.
Ouko, however, noted an impressive rate in the determination of election petition appeals with 138 out of 151 appeals filed so far concluded.
He promised to have the decisions for the remaining thirteen appeals delivered within the month of July.
Speaking at Justice Ouko’s inauguration, CJ Maraga commended the Court of Appeal for striving to attain efficiency in line with the Judiciary Transformation Agenda.
“I congratulate the Court for determining within a record time of two months up to this day 98 per cent of appeals arising from election petitions. All these short-term achievements have been registered because of the focus of the Court of Appeal and cooperation of counsel who practice before that Court,” he said.
Also present at the ceremony were Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, Attorney General Paul Kihara, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, and his Senate counterpart Kenneth Lusaka.
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