‘Judiciary remains last line of defence’

Mathew Masinge

THE judiciary remains the last line of defence when it comes to fundamental human rights, Chief Justice Luke Malaba said.

CJ Malaba said this while officially opening the 2023 Legal Year, under the theme “Promoting competence and quality of service to enhance public confidence in the judiciary”.

He said it’s improper for other institutions to accuse the judiciary of corruption when the whole justice delivery system was taking the fight seriously.

“Whilst cooperation between State entities is encouraged to enhance efficiency in the criminal justice system, the independence of the judiciary must be respected, consistent with the dictates of the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers.

“It is equally important that the public is given accurate information on the matter.

“Currently there are 147 corruption related cases pending in the courts; of these cases, 89 are either in progress or have been finalised, with 16 cases having trial dates, whilst for 52 cases, trials have commenced, and 21 cases have been finalised,” said CJ Malaba.

He said the courts remain competent to deal with all matters.

“The statistics given do not indicate a country that is not taking the fight against corruption seriously. They show that arresting agents and the prosecution are busy at work,” he said.

This year has wholly been dedicated to promoting competence and quality of service to enhance public confidence in the judiciary.

“This is another chance for the justice delivery system to account to the people. The theme is also informed by the obligation imposed on the courts by the law that judicial officers must be competent.

“It is only then that the public will have confidence in the courts and will respect the decisions coming out of the courts

“Every standard relating to the judiciary can and ought to be traced back to the Constitution, and the question of competence in the provision of judicial service is no exception,” he said.

He applauded the Judicial Service Commission for introducing the Electronic Case Management System, saying it had made the workload easier.

As at December 31 last year, a total of 1 574 cases had been registered through the e-filing system of which 494 virtual hearings were heard.

Currently, 5 877 users have registered on the web-run system, of whom 758 are law firms, 2 522 are legal practitioners and the rest are members of the public.

Meanwhile, last year the Criminal Courts recorded 87 227 compared to 76 185 in 2021.

Civil Courts received 94 616 last year, with a clearance rate of 98 percent against 53 165 matters in 2021.