Kenya may be among the only countries in the world where you can spend more than three decades in the court corridors seeking justice in vain, especially if you are poor and don’t have any 'tall' relatives.
A judiciary plenary session last week saw tears flow freely as desperate Kenyans cried in public over how they had suffered in their quest of seeking justice with some taking as long as 33 years in the corridors of justice.
A panel of 14 judges sat and listened to members of the public who accused them of being 'puppets' of the executives. They also mentioned the inaccessibility of the chief justice, Evans Gicheru.
The saddest tale was that of one widow, Margaret Nyakinyua, 63, who broke down while explaining how her case has been pending for the past 16 years and being a land dispute, she can't live a financially stable life.
This stories were not new to the judges who pretended to note the complaints with concern yet many of them were responsible for most of these problems as a result of corruption and laziness among these so called 'distinguished' members of the bench.
The rot and decay in the judiciary is so bad that the plenary session turned into discussions of personal cases instead of tackling broader issues affecting the judiciary like corruption and how it can be dealt with.
Chief Justice Gicheru is already under pressure to resign following his recent orders that all cases against the government can only be filed in the capital city, Nairobi which will make it extremely expensive for upcountry litigants who have issues with the state.
Gicheru also has skeletons in his own closet and many wonder why he has not chosen to pursue those who murdered the late former foreign minister Robert Ouko yet Gicheru himself was among three judges who's sittings in Kisumu to gather information into the mystery was unceremoniously disbanded by former president Moi in 1990.
There were other nagging questions that the plenary session out rightly refused to answer like the recent abortive appointment of three judges yet it is common knowledge that there is an acute shortage of the same in the country.
The so called judicial reforms may have to take a back seat for a while as the minister for justice and constitutional affairs Martha Karua has her hands full at the moment with the contentious issue of whether or not to have minimum reforms before the general elections to be held in December.
They say justice delayed is justice denied and for Stanley Kanona who told the plenary session that his case has been pending for 33 years and he has spent in excess of Sh 1 million or US$ 14,300, he has definitely been denied justice.
However, the saddest part of it is the fact that there are hundreds of others who are in the same predicament as Kanona and will continue to suffer as long as the judiciary remains corrupt and lazy not to mention the influence exerted on it by the executive.
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