Judiciary Chief Registrar Anne Amadi has warned that courts could shut down in February next year if the government goes ahead with plans to reduce its budget by about Ksh3 billion.
Amadi, who appeared before senate committee on Thursday, said the proposed budget cut has resulted in the postponement of infrastructural work and slowed down operations of the Judiciary.
She told the committee that the Judiciary has no money to hire new judges and magistrates.
“The judiciary needs 1200 magistrates currently we have 500 less than what is required due to lack of funds,” Amadi said while noting that hiring more magistrates would help reduce the backlog of cases but added they would have nowhere to sit.
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If the proposed budget cut is effected, suspects who cannot afford lawyers will wait longer for justice as the court will be unable to settle fees for probono lawyers.
Initially, the national treasury had backtracked on its bid to reduce the judiciary’s budget. However, in the supplementary budget tabled before the national assembly, the ministry made an about-turn and sneaked in the proposal to cut down the budget by almost Ksh3 billion.