NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 8 – The National Treasury has allocated Judiciary Sh18.9 billion in the 2022-2023 financial budget presented in Parliament by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani on Thursday.
Despite being an extra Sh1 billion from the Sh17.9 billion it received in 2021-2022 financial year, the budget falls short by 52 percent of what the institution had asked for (Sh39.5 billion)
“Stronger institutions and effective policy implementation and management of resources improves service delivery, transparency and accountability to enhance the oversight and legislative role of Parliament and access to justice, I propose an allocation of Sh50.2 billion to Parliament and Sh18.9 billion to the Judiciary,” Yatani said in Parliament.
Earlier, In a letter to the National Treasury and Parliament, Chief Registrar of Judiciary Anne Amadi said Judiciary’s proposed allocation of Sh17.2 billion falls significantly short of the resource requirements of Sh39 billion by 54 per cent.
She had mentioned election-related expenses among the major reasons for an increase in budget allocation for which the Judiciary has requested Sh681 million in anticipation of a wave of political parties’ disputes and election petitions arising from this year’s general election.
“There were 188 election petitions filed in 2013, but the cases increased to 388 in 2017. Going by this trend, it is expected that in 2022, the petitions will double those of 2017,” the letter stated.
The Judiciary further stated that the number of Senior Resident Magistrates and Principal Magistrates is currently half of the required and less than half of the required respectively.
“The Judiciary has been underfunded over the years where the annual allocation has continuously been less than half of the resource requirements,” Judiciary had stated.
In Yatani’s Sh3.3 trillion-budget, In order to enhance the fight against corruption and accelerate smooth flow of service delivery, the Office of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Office of the Public Prosecutions were allocated Sh8.4 billion and Sh3.4 billion respectively.
“We shall continue to seek better public service delivery by building and sustaining strong, efficient and accountable institutions. In order to enhance good governance and scale up our fight against 77 corruption, I propose an allocation of Sh3.6 billion for the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission;Sh3.4 billion for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions; Sh8.4 billion for the Criminal Investigations Services; and Sh6.4 billion for the Office of the Auditor General,” said Yatani.
