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{
    "id": 1072353,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1072353/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 20,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "On this issue I have raised on access to justice during this season of the pandemic, I remember when the whole nation and perhaps entire world was glued to their televisions awaiting the ruling on the ill-fated BBI initiative, it took more than two hours of the country waiting because the judges could not log into the Zoom platform. It is a national shame that a country that is endowed resources cannot even purchase--- It showed how starved of resources our Judiciary is; that we have to result to third-rate or perhaps platforms that are not secure. We have scenarios in other countries where people have stormed into Zoom meetings and displayed other matters. Each time I saw those judges reaching out to give some of their rulings, I was bothered what would happen in something unfortunate was to happen, and a hacker or somebody was to log them out. This tells us of the obvious challenge happening in our Judiciary. There is no rocket science about the solutions they need with regard to that. It is about funding. Let us allow them to set up the Judiciary fund. The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for National Treasury and Planning has never gazetted those regulations to allow the Judiciary to, perhaps, make use of some of the resources they can raise from their services. Of course, there is a flip side to the argument on what can be done, but at least allow them to run a fund that will allow them to dispense justice and give out the services they give to the citizens of this country as an equal arm of the Government. This is why if one reads many of the proposals from some of the good thinking Kenyans and all the attempted constitutional amendment initiatives that have come in the last seven years, each has been saying that at least we should set a minimum ceiling of how much Parliament needs to dispense to the Judiciary, the same way we have set the amounts to be devolved to the county governments. If one looks at the funding of the Judiciary vis-à-vis the other arms of the Government, it is not a proper comparison. It should not be left at the whims of Parliament because we understand how parliamentarians are. For example, with ruling given last week, one does not want to imagine what will happen to the Judiciary budget if it falls into the wrong hands in the National Assembly. If people were to make good some of their threats that we hear from people who are supposedly leaned and the kinds of things they are saying about the Judiciary, one would be worried. Such scenarios lead to obvious dysfunction in our Judiciary. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I do not want to take long. I know that the rest of my colleagues also may want to say something about this issue. My proposal is that the policy decision or whatever proposal that will come out of this Committee should not only be shared with Petitioners. The same needs to be forwarded to the National Assembly and its Budget Committee and the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, so that they understand that citizens are concerned about the continuous underfunding of our Judiciary. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir."
}