• Ombudsman received 104 employee integrity-related complaints representing a 10 per cent reduction from 2018/19 financial year where 115 cases were registered.
• There are 617,582 pending cases comprising 291,126 criminal cases and 326,456 civil cases.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
Members of the public are not pleased with the quality of services rendered by the courts, a report has revealed.
The 2019/20 State of the Judiciary report indicates that there was an increase in complaints of poor service against the courts.
The report launched on Friday by Chief Justice David Maraga indicates that some 130 complaints were filed at the Judiciary's Ombudsman.
"The increase of complaints in this category by 130 is an indication that members of the public were not pleased with the quality of service they received from the courts. This office shall endeavour to continuously visit the courts to assess the areas of concern and make the necessary recommendations on improvement and also continue sensitizing the public on the avenues available to register their dissatisfaction with the quality of services offered," the report read in part.
According to the report, the office of the Judiciary Ombudsman (OJO) cumulatively received and processed 1,567 complaints out of whom 914 were processed and closed successfully.
This represents 56 per cent of the total complaints received.
A total of 131 were closed with a workaround, meaning that there were chances that the complaint would come up again as the matter was not fully resolved.
A total of 68 complaints were lodged multiple times and were hence merged.
"During the reporting period, a 34 per cent increase was registered in complaints related to poor services. All the other service categories registered reduced complaints. Overall, there was a 13 per cent reduction in the number of complaints," the report said.
The report said while a significant decline was registered in the complaints received with regards to low services, it is a concern that members of the public continue to experience delays in receiving services at the courts.
"The leadership shall continue to ensure that each court and administrative unit adheres to the promises made to the public in their respective service charters," it read.
Complaints about cash bail refunds reduced from 65 in the previous reporting period to 45. This is attributed to measures put in place by management to ensure timely refunds across the courts.
With regards to missing files, the report revealed that while a 30 per cent reduction in complaints about missing files registered, the total number of complaints is still too high in numbers.
The report said measures need to continue being put in place to monitor file movements and their custody.
The report further reveals that the Ombudsman received 104 employee integrity-related complaints representing a 10 per cent reduction from 2018/19 financial year where 115 cases were registered.
Caseload statistics
According to the report, during the period under review, a total of 337,510 cases were filed in all courts comprising 249,199 criminal cases and 88,311 civil cases.
In the same period, courts resolved a total of 289,728 cases where 203,976 were criminal in nature and 85,752 were civil in nature.
The report reveals that criminal cases were the most filed and resolved cases for the past six financial years in comparison with civil cases.
In the year 2019/20, the total filed cases were more than the resolved cases which points out that overall pending cases increased.
"The general upward trend of both filed and resolved cases, save for the FY 2019/20, depict that Kenyan courts are appropriately reacting to the increased demand for justice services by the public by resolving more cases," the report said.
This reduction in both the demand and supply of justice during the period under review is attributed to the adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic which saw Judiciary downscale most of its court activities from the month of March, 2020 to July 2020.
Pending cases
With regards to pending cases, the report indicates that overall pending cases in the Judiciary has been rising over time
It indicates there are 617,582 pending cases comprising 291,126 criminal cases and 326,456 civil cases.
The number of pending cases rose by 8 per cent from 569,859 cases at the end of FY 2018/19 to 617,582 cases at the end of FY 2019/20. Civil cases remained the bulk of the pending cases for the past six financial years in comparison with criminal cases," the report said.
The report shows that most of these pending cases were in magistrates’ court with 483,864 cases, followed by High Court with 89,415 cases.
The least pending cases were recorded at Supreme Court with 89 cases.
Case Backlog
According to the report, cases that have been pending for more than one year are classified as backlog cases.
At the end of the FY 2019/20, case backlog stood at 359,347 cases with 65 per cent being aged between 1 and 3 years and 25 per cent between 3 and 5 years.
Some 10 per cent of the cases were above 5 years in age.
"The case backlog aged between 1 and 3 years was 234,871, between 3 and 5 years was 89,117, whereas 35,359 were aged above five years," the report read.
It said Magistrates’ Court and High Court had the highest case backlog at 259,519 and 69,184 cases respectively.
The Kadhis’ court had no case backlog aged above 5 years while the Supreme Court had one case.