Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Judges lay down the law for Lumumba

By MARK AGUTU magutu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Monday, August 9 2010 at 21:00
In Summary

-Bring watertight cases and you will win, but if the evidence is weak you will lose, KACC told

The Judiciary on Monday warned the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) not to expect it to dance to its whims in the fight against corruption.

The commission must be ready to meet the benchmarks for nailing corruption suspects it brings to court or face the ignominy of losing the cases, presiding judge of the Court of Appeal Justice Riaga Omolo said.

“All of us deplore corruption as much as you do, but when you come to court you will only win when you deserve to win. If you deserve to lose, you will lose,” Mr Justice Omolo told KACC director Patrick Lumumba at the annual judges meeting in Mombasa.

He added: “The fight against corruption must be done in accordance with the laws of the country.”

Mr Justice Omolo said judges would work with State agencies like KACC to speed up delivery of justice.

“We are prepared to cooperate and not stand in the way of Kenyans in anything that needs to be done,” he said.

Earlier, Dr Lumumba had called for cooperation between the relevant government agencies to fight corruption, saying it was impossible to operate with a tainted Judiciary.

“In the history of any nation, you can survive with a bad Legislature and Executive, but cannot survive with a bad Judiciary.

“The fight against graft requires teamwork and this is the time to liberate this country from the ghost of corruption or it will consume us,” he said.

Dr Lumumba added he received about 1,000 calls on Sunday after he opened his direct line, and most of the complaints touched on the police and the Judiciary.

Performance was impressive

On the judges’ performance, Mr Justice Omolo dismissed claims judges do not work hard.

In the Court of Appeal, he said, monthly reports showed the performance was impressive.

“As at the end of July 2010, we have cleared more cases than we had the whole of last year,” he said, adding this was partly due to addition of two new judges to the appellate bench.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary has initiated reforms to reducing backlog of cases and improve on service delivery.

And when the reforms are complete, the era of judges writing down notes and typing judgements on manual typewriters will be gone as the courts will be fully automated, Chief Justice Evan Gicheru said on Monday.

He said consultants were working on the automation and digitisation of the Judiciary. The reforms will see the introduction of video conferencing which will be used for witnesses outside the country and for the mention of matters of persons in remand.

Vulnerable witnesses like children and victims in sexual cases will also testify using this method.

“The courts are gradually being equipped with computers which will be networked to prepare for the upcoming changes in the court’s administration and operations,” he said.

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