Government Restores Judiciary’s Full Budget

The government has restored full budget that had been allocated to the Judiciary.

In an internal memo to the CEO of the Law Society of Kenya by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) Chief Registrar, Ann Amadi, “the Judiciary’s Recurrent and Development budget for financial year 2019/2020 has been restored and the budget for the half year been uploaded in IFMIS as approved by the National Assembly.”

The Judiciary was allocated Sh14.5 billion by the Parliament which Treasury cut to Sh11.5 billion; slashing Sh3 billion last month in order to raise funds for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda.

With the budget restoration, the Judiciary can now proceed to implement “all approved activities in FY 2019/2020 work plans should therefore proceed as planned.” the letter read in part.

The new development comes days after the Chief Justice made a public outcry citing frustration by the government saying the budget cuts had left the Judiciary in a limbo.

On October 25, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) challenged the budget cuts in courts saying the move was likely to paralyse operations at the Judiciary.

Through the case, LSK obtained interim orders compelling the Treasury to fully implement the duly approved Judiciary budget. The court orders were extended on Wednesday pending the hearing and determination of the case which comes up for a mention on November 27.