NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 31 – Appellate Court Judge David Maraga says if appointed the next Chief Justice, tackling graft within the Judiciary will be among his top priorities.
He says he will expand the office of the Judiciary’s Ombudsman into a secretariat chaired by a senior judge given a magistrate who cannot question his superiors, currently occupies that office.
He says he will also open an email hotline for the aggrieved to use in channelling their complaints on service delivery within the Judiciary.
Maraga who is the third judge to be interviewed for the job of Chief Justice presented himself as an incorruptible, decisive decision maker.
He says the one time a court orderly sought to compromise him while he was stationed in Mombasa, he called for his arrest.
Maraga has identified case backlogs and resource deficits as the other challenges that plague the Judiciary.
He says the automation of court records will go a long way in addressing the case backlog as will hiring more judges and magistrates.
He has however not expounded on where he’d seek the funds for the expansion exercise except for citing donors.
He’s listed the development of jurisprudence as one of the core functions of a Chief Justice and given it as one area he has excelled at in his career.
