This archive report was first published on 24 August 2021.
On August 24, 2021, a power outage at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi caused a four-hour disruption to court proceedings, leaving lawyers and litigants stranded.
According to a source, the backup generator had run out of fuel, forcing the court to stall for four hours. The outage occurred at 9:00 am, and lawyers were directed to continue select proceedings at nearby tents.
Lawyers at the premises urged Chief Justice Martha Koome to address the issue, citing the court's transformer had blown up two months ago, leaving the institution reliant on a backup generator.
Advocate Evans Ondieki called for quick action, stating, "The court proceedings have been halted substantially by lack of power and I think there is no emergency in terms of a generator to assist, and this has forced to adjourn most of the cases," as reported by K24.
This is not the first time the court has faced a power outage, with a similar incident occurring in July 2018 during the bail hearing of senior Kenya Power officials.
Chief Justice Martha Koome has been working to address the backlog of cases, which is one of the Judiciary's major challenges. She has introduced night shifts for court proceedings and recruited new judges to help resolve cases more efficiently.
