Courts commended for clearing backlog of cases

CHIEF Justice Luke Malaba has commended the performance of the country’s courts in the past two years after most of them managed to reduce their backlog.

The Chief Justice said this in his speech during the official opening of the 2024 Legal year where he expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the Magistrates Courts, both criminal and civil and the superior courts which are, the High Court, Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, Administrative Court and the Labour Court.

“The performance of the courts during the period under review has been good. In the superior courts, the year (2023) started with a total of 2127 cases carried over from 2022 but the year closed with 1381 cases.

“A total of 29433 cases were received and 30560 were completed and disposed of. All the courts reduced their backlog, some such as the Supreme Court and the High Court doing so with huge margins. The only court that saw its backlog rising at the end of the year was the Labour Court.

“Engagements with the Senior Judge of the Labour Court with a view to have the performance of that court improved will be undertaken,” he said.

Chief Justice Malaba also hailed the performance of the Magistrates Courts country wide.

“The Magistrates’’ Courts also performed well. The criminal courts opened the year with a total of 1218 cases, received 111934 cases, and completed 102916 cases, leaving a balance of 9018 cases as at 31 December 2023.

“In the civil courts, the number of cases carried over from 2022 was 1424, 102354 cases were received during the year, of which 103778 cases were completed, leaving a balance of 851 cases at the close of the year,” he said.

Chief Justice Malaba appreciated the work done by all courts employees and judicial officers and said they would continue to lobby Treasury for more resources to improve their conditions of service.