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{
    "id": 972091,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/972091/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 507,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mathare, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Anthony Oluoch",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13425,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Tom Oluoch",
        "slug": "anthony-tom-oluoch-2"
    },
    "content": "Court to stand at some point inside or slightly where the lady Serjeant-At-Arms is seated, to read to us the state of the Judiciary. This is so crucial for proper functioning of the rest of the other arms of the Government. I want to speak to Chapter Two of this Report on Page 17 on access to justice. It is very crucial. Article 159 of our Constitution talks about one of the principles of the Judiciary, which is access to justice. This has been buttressed and emphasised under Article 49 of the Constitution which talks about fairness, fair administration and access to justice. This is one of the things which Article 25 of the Constitution has stated as rights that you cannot derogate to access justice. However, there are things that we have done that impede access to justice. I am looking at some of the statistics in the Report. In the 2017/2018 Financial Year, about 283,788 criminal cases were pending before our judicial system; a backlog, and 118,455, which in total comes to 402,243. Massively, with the funds that we appropriated to them in that financial year, under the judicial transformation framework, they were able to reduce the backlog by 370,488. However, last year, when we slashed their money, they were not able to proceed with the judicial transformation, which includes infrastructure, construction of courts, hiring of more judges and digitisation of the courts. This is the reason we have a backlog according to the Report for that particular financial year of 327,928 taking into account that cases are also filed every year. I use that as my most important point because at the moment, something has been pending and causing tension between the two arms of the Government. I want to use this opportunity to plead with my President to appoint more judges, so that we can ease the issue of the backlog and improve access to justice. Among the judges that were appointed, there are those that have been highlighted or have been flagged by our agencies as persons not fit to hold office as judicial officers. I clearly would like to ask my President to have other judges appointed, so that we could deal with the question of the backlog. This will also ensure that judicial independence and access to justice do not get impeded. Secondly, I would also like to make comments about Recommendation No.1.7. Having come out of this discussion and observations of the Committee on the leadership and management, I would like to laud the Judiciary for coming up informally or administratively with the Judicial Ombudsman. However, I suggest that instead of what the Committee has recommended here, we elevate and put in statute the position of the Ombudsman of the Judiciary, that we buttress the Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ). That is what became the successor of the Ombudsman. Under the CAJ, we can have a sub-department of the Judicial Ombudsman working under the CAJ, so that we do not have many structures and we are not left confused. This may work properly. Lastly and because my time is up, I want to laud them on the judicial transformation and with the more money being appropriated to them, digitisation of the Judiciary will have the effect of improving access to justice, but more importantly, the youth will get jobs in the area of ICT. For these reasons, I would like to thank the Committee again and ask that, as we engage in the national discussion of the constitutional tensions, let us improve and give the weaker link, the Judiciary, an assistance even as we tell them that as the weaker link, the fight against corruption must not fall because the judicial officers are compromised or implicit. I thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I support."
}