The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has suspended recruitment of the Court of Appeal judges following a 15 per cent budget cut in the National Treasury appropriation budget. 

In the 2024/25 budget, the Judiciary was set to receive Ksh.24 billion to fund all expenses but with the new directive, they will be allocated Ksh.20 billion. 

According to JSC chairperson Chief Justice Martha Koome , the directive will have far-reaching consequences on Judiciary operations and hence necessitating major adjustments to planned programs including suspending the recruitment of 11 Court of Appeal judges which was set to commence on Wednesday. 

"Currently, the Court of Appeal has a total of 29 Judges serving in only six stations across the country which translates to 9 benches at any given time. The court had a total of 13, 331 pending cases as at May 2024," the statement read in part. 

Further, the JSC pointed out that the death of Magistrate Monica Kivuti of the Makadara Law Courts necessitated a restructuring and reallocation of the budget to meet security arrangements to provide a safe environment for all users of the courts. 

"The Judiciary will therefore require additional resources in the FY 2024/2025 to address these immediate concerns."

CJ Koome promised to engage Parliament and Executive to enhance and secure the Judiciary's budget.

The new directive is in line with the austerity measures promised by President William Ruto to cut across all arms of the government following the rejection of the Finance Bill. 

Ruto also noted that budgetary expenses towards offices of the First and Second Lady would be scrapped and also promised to reduce salaries for public officers to reflect the current state of the affairs in the country.