Written by Protus Wangila Simiyu 2011-11-30 15:26:00 Read 524 Times

The Bungoma lawyers strike Monday entered its third week demanding that a second judge is posted to the station to ease the backlog of cases.

The over 40 lawyers boycotted the High Court proceedings demanding that Chief Justice Willy Mutunga posts another judge as agreed earlier.

Law Society of Kenya Bungoma chapter chairman John Makali doubted if CJ Willy Mutunga could a make a reality the much anticipated reforms in the judiciary.

“When they were appointed we thought the much hyped judicial reforms had come, but they have confirmed our worst fears that they are for the status quo,” He said.

Makali said that despite their dialogue with Mutunga before and during the strike he seemed to be down playing the plight of Bungoma county residents which is the third most populous county in the country.

He blamed Mutunga for failing to establish how many judges should be posted at each station according to the demands of the region saying some areas like Machakos had five judges, Nakuru seven and Mombasa eight some  who he said their diaries were empty.

“We have enough judges in the country, the problem is the CJ is sleeping on Job and does not want to walk around and see which stations are in dire need of Judges,” he said.

He further said that the back log of cases at the Bungoma high court could never be addressed by one single judge owing to the fact that the court hears cases From Mumias, Butere , Teso , Busia , Bungoma and Mt.Elgon.

He said that none of the cases heard this year could find another date this year because of the tight diary of the high court saying that was justice delayed.

Yesterday the lawyers returned over four thousand files assigned to them by the attorney general to represent poor people who cannot afford legal fees popularly known as “pauper briefs” to the high court registrar Julius Ng’arng’ar.

The lawyers further threatened to paralyze activities to other lower courts starting next week if their plight is not heard.

Mean while there was drama at the Bungoma government prisons when capital offenders demanded that that they wanted to be taken to attend high court sessions as per their required dates.

The prison authorities were forced to take them to the high court cells which were not in session as the inmates banged doors and shouted “Tunataka haki”

High court Judge Aggrey Muchelule is said to be seeking Modalities of giving them new dates  from next year.

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