This archive report was first published on 16 September 2019.
As of September 16, 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta's silence over the appointment of new Court of Appeal judges is causing anxiety in the Judiciary. The court, which decides appeals arising from High Court rulings, is stretched, with only 13 of 19 judges available to serve full-time.
According to sources, the imminent retirement of three more judges, Justices Alnasir Visram, Kihara Kariuki, and Phillip Waki, will further pile pressure on the court. The three judges are expected to exit as they have attained 70 years and cannot be allocated fresh cases.
Justice Visram will be the first to leave at the end of the month, while Waki follows next month. Justice Kihara will retire in December after the court granted him more months in the Judiciary.
The Court of Appeal has 5,000 cases that have not been settled, and litigants are starting to feel the heat as the court has to postpone cases due to the inability of the existing judges to serve the whole country.
Justice Kathurima M'inoti is permanently at the Judiciary Training Institute, and Justice Mohamed Warsame is at the Judicial Service Commission, which means their benches will be affected whenever the commission sits.
President of the Court of Appeal, Justice William Ouko, acts as administrator, leaving the country with 13 judges who ought to hear appeals emanating from the High Courts.
A senior judge revealed that Nyeri's Court of Appeal is now operating on a temporal basis, with no defined timeline for the President to effect appointments.
