NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 15 – The Judiciary is seeking to have its allocation for the 2022/23 financial year doubled citing the risk of stalled infrastructure and court digitization.
The appeal for enhanced funding was made on Friday when he Judiciary unveiled its Medium-Term Expenditure Framework budget report asking for Sh39.56 billion against a proposed Sh17.599 billion.
The Judiciary said the proposed amount will not be sufficient for the institution to deliver its mandate as required.
Chief Registrar of Judiciary Anne Amadi warned that should the Sh17.599 billion proposal be retained, the Judiciary will only have Sh2 billion to spend on development with Sh15.599 billion expected to fund recurrent expenditure.
She said the amount would leave the Judiciary with a 44 per cent budget shortfall.
The National Treasury allocated Sh18.1 billion to the Judiciary for the Financial Year 2020/2021.
Amadi said it is unfortunate that justice needs in the country had been overlooked over the years.
“If we say that the Judiciary only deserves 0.6 percent of the national budget, what does it say about us as a nation in terms of our justice needs?” she posed.
Amadi lamented that the Judiciary’s funding has continuously been less than half of the resource requirements adding that the situation is worrying.
“Is it justice funding in the country is so unimportant that the funding gap keeps growing wider and wider as the national funding keeps increasing and that is something for all of us to think about both internal and external stakeholders,” she said.
The Judiciary budget allocations in the Financial Year 2018/19 was Sh16.095 billion which increased by 5 per cent to Sh16.963 billion in Financial Year 2019/20 and rose by 1 per cent to Sh17.133 billion in Financial Year 2020/21.
The Judiciary’s absorption rate was at 95 per cent in the Financial Year 2018/19, which improved to 97 percent in 2019/20 but reduced to 93 percent in Financial Year 2020/21.
Judiciary Acting Director of Finance Susan Oyatsi observed that the shortfall will affect key areas notably the establishment and construction of courts, facilitation of benches, operationalization of small claims courts, court annexed mediation, Alternative Justice System, service weeks, pro bono, mobile courts among others.
Oyatsi stressed the under-funding will stretch the Judiciary especially during this electioneering period where an influx of cases arising from political party primaries, nomination of candidates and constitutional petitions are bound to be witnessed.
“The post-election period will present a challenge of increase in election related offences and petitions,” she said.
Chief Justice Martha Koome has been at the forefront in leading calls for more funding for the Judiciary.
Her predecessor David Maraga was also very vocal on the issues of funding with his efforts to seek a minimum of 1 per cent of the national budget triggering antagonism between him and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
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