[Jambo] The Judiciary must be above reproach

Once Hon Njeru Ndwiga, Minister for Cooperatives Development told his vernacular radio audience that HE President Kibaki had asked him whose goat he had eaten. That was the time Kenyans were fed up with corruption and were baying for the blood of the corrupt. At the same time, Hon Ndwiga entered into some tax conspiracy over some property, for which Mwiraria exempted Ndwiga from paying tax. Just before this Ndwiga/Mwiraria/Kibaki goat eating thing, one Margaret Gachara had been arrested, charged in court and jailed for embezzling funds at that National Aids Control thing. But immediately thereafter, HE President Kibaki exercised his powers of clemency under our Kenyan constitution, and promptly pardoned her, and Gachara was released.

This kind of business is so central to government operations at almost all levels, to an extent that it clogs the wheels of justice. At the same time, the Chief Justice, while admitting new lawyers to the bar, normally talks about the Judiciary being above reproach while at the same time he calls upon Kenyans to report to him instances of injustice and corruption at the Judiciary. He normally asks Kenyans to help him in unearthing incompetence, injustice ant corruption at the Judiciary.

He has even gone ahead and constituted a new team to expedite and dispose of cases at our courts in an a bid to clear the backlog of cases in the courts. But like the president when he talks about zero tolerance to corruption, the Chief Justice's calls have largely been ceremonial and public relations exercises. We have several cases of delayed justise, outright incompetence and behaviour which borders on corrupt tendencies from some of our judiciary staff, issues that will never raise the voice of the Chief Justice. When the CJ institutes a body such as the committee to expedite and dispose of with cases at the judiciary, is he accepting that there is a problem at the Judiciary? I bet he is not playing it smart. He may want to make the public believe that he is doing something about the problem, while in real terms, he is just covering up for himself incase someone comes asking questions in the next regime.

I have evidence to the effect that letters addressed to the CJ are never officially recieved and stamped, as is done in all other government offices. The AP at his entrance will just take the letter and you remain with no evidence that you ever delivered a letter to the CJ. This is akin to eating whose goat.

If the truth be told, we currently have so many incompetent officers presiding over the dispensation of justice in Kenya. There are some cases which are so straight forward which can be dispensed with within 10 minutes flat, after being filed. But these cases are postponed to future dates, then the games of hide and seek starts among the judiciary staff. The end result is that you find that such a straight forward case is lost on the litigant, and justice is awarded the wrong person. It is like justice gets sold to the highest bidder. It is my humble submission that the judiciary is a place to start on in the war on corruption. If the judiciary staff are honest to the laws of the land, they would look at all cases as they are filed, and set a time frame for which such cases ought to finalise.

It beats all logic to come to court under certificate of urgency in November 1992, and by November 2002, a whole 10 years down the line, such a case is still lying somewhere in the court registry unfinished. Something must be critically wrong with the person hearing such a case. It is simple; that judge/magistrate must be either grossly incompetent to do his work, and/or, he does not know why we pay for his salary.

If you walk in the court corridors around Kenya and talk to litigants, tales of hopelessness abound. People are complaining of very simple things, things that can be solved by uneducated village elder within 5 minutes, yet they are things that take our educated judges/magistrates ages to decifer. One gets the feeling, why all this go slow in our courts of law? If these people are not equal to the task, why not sack all of them and employ young energetic lawyers who are willing to work? Not the Aaron Ringera kind of circus.

The delay in handling cases makes one start wondering if our judicial system has been officially designed to deny litigants justice. Deliberate efforts must be made by the CJ to ensure that kenyans recieve justice as quickly as we pay the necessary requisite court fee. But forming a committee to look into how to dispose with cases quickly is like all the commissions the government like forming; money minting machines for the favoured few. It does not make any sense to have a committee advicing a competent judiciary on how to do its work. If the judiciary rose to the occassion and stopped playing roulette with litigants, corruption would be non-existent. It would stop. The formation of this committee raises some very fundamental questions; are our judiciary officers competent and equal to the task? Or are they in it for the money? The adage that justice delayed is justice denied seems to be alien to our judge/magistrates.

Sometimes we also wonder why our judge/magistrate releases criminals back on Kenyans, after the police have made arrests. we then ask, are these officers committed to making Kenya a better place to live in? Do these judges/magistrates also live with us here in Kenya?

As Azdak would say in 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle',' the judge/magistrate may be numb, but he must be appointed, or the law is violated. And the law is a sensitive organ. Its like the spleen, you mustn't hit it- that would be fatal......But judgement when pronounced must be pronounced with absolute gravity.......'.

Absolute gravity that would deter criminals and stop corruption. Deliberate effoerts must be put in place to have competent people, people who love Kenya, and knowledgeable in law, appointed to dispense justice on Kenyans. Not people who will need a committe to advice them on how to do their work with speed.

Deliberate efforts must be made to ensure the judiciary staff are above reproach, so that the war on criminals and corruption is moved forward. Deliberate efforts must be put in place to ensure that justice is dispensed on litigants swiftly and not the kind of auction we see in our courts. What is currently obtaining makes the CJ sound hollow when he calls upon Kenyans to rise to the occassion and speak up about incompetence and corruption at the judiciary.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Chairman- LDP Komarock Ward, Embakasi Constituency, Nairobi.