By PATRICK MAYOYO pmayoyo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, December 11 2011 at 22:30
Posted Sunday, December 11 2011 at 22:30
Kenyan judges, magistrates and other employees of the Judiciary are to benefit from a Sh20 million mortgage scheme each.
The scheme is part of efforts by the Judicial Service Commission to improve terms and conditions of service in the Judiciary.
In a memo dated November 17, this year, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, said the scheme will start on January 1, 2012.
This is the first time since independence that judicial officers will be entitled to a mortgage scheme.
“Among the terms and conditions of service is the provision of housing loans to all judicial officers and staff.
“The JSC has approved and directed that a judiciary staff mortgage scheme be established and operationalised,” the memo said in part.
The Sh20 million mortgage is for purchase of ready constructed houses, financing of purchase of plots and loans to construct houses.
The maximum repayment period is 25 years or the period remaining to retirement. It targets all judges of the Supreme, Appeal and High courts.
Others are magistrates, heads of station or departments and other judicial staff.
The scheme will be administered by the Kenya Commercial Bank and the interest applicable to the scheme is three per cent.
Some Sh430 million has already been deposited with the bank and may be increased depending on the scheme’s uptake. It starts operating in January next year.
The latest development is among reforms that have been initiated by Dr Mutunga and his deputy Nancy Baraza, since they were appointed to the judiciary through public vetting. (READ: Change has come to the Judiciary)
That process closed the chapter of appointments that were being done by the President without any public involvement.
Brought about by the Constitution, the public vetting of candidates for judicial positions was again employed in the recruitment of judges of the Supreme Court and High Court. (READ: Kenya Supreme Court finally gets down to work)
The judiciary is also set to vet judges as part of the on-going reforms. Besides vetting, reforms have also been effected inside courts.
The CJ has set out to make the courts appear friendly, by abolishing wigs and robes that were previously the traditional attire for judges.
Dr Mutunga replaced Mr Evan Gicheru, whose reign has been praised for the adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by the Judiciary.
Under Mr Gicheru’s watch, the Judiciary started to employ technology in case management, while court records begun to be converted into digital formats for them to be easily available online.
Through the Kenya Law Reform Commission and the National Council for Law Reporting, the Judiciary has been able to make steps towards modernising the justice process.
All the laws of Kenya can be accessed by anybody through the Internet. A data base of the laws is available on the law reform commission website.
The website www.kenyalaw.org also contains other important information including the daily cause lists for all the courts, profiles of judicial officers including a list of judges and advocates.
According to information posted on the Judiciary website, seven million pages worth of court records have been scanned.
A contractor was hired, with the help of Kenya ICT board, to instal a document management system to allow users access to the scanned court records, according to the website.
The use of ICT is welcome and can enable faster conclusion of cases, but it is the quality of judgements that will matter in the end.Past issues of the Kenya Gazette, from the colonial times, have also been digitised and posted online.
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