Lawmakers have allocated Sh1.2 billion to the Judiciary for the purchase of a building in Upper Hill in a bid to ease pressure for office space and judge chambers following an increased number of judges.
This is part of a Sh3.22 billion budget increase for the Judiciary by the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC), which is chaired by Kiharu Member of Parliament (MP) Ndindi Nyoro.
The extra allocation has raised the Judiciary’s budget for the financial year 2024/25 to Sh23.73 billion.
“Additional Sh1.2 billion (development) for purchase of Madison House (office),” said the committee in its report to the House.
The Judiciary has been injected with a further Sh200 million for the settlement of outstanding court arbitration at the Lodwar Law Courts, Sh400 for refurbishment of the Supreme Court and Sh300 million for leasing motor vehicles.
MPs have also given the third arm of government an additional Sh300 million for mortgage, Sh320 million for the facilitation of 36 new judges, Sh200 for operationalisation of small claims courts and Sh300 million for digital strategy and automation.
Madison Insurance House is located next to Milimani Commercial Courts.
In 2022, Madison Life Assurance Kenya Limited, which owns the building, revealed it was selling properties worth Sh8 billion to restructure its balance sheet and boost capital.
The insurance firm is said to have approached the Judiciary with the offer to sell the building.
The budgeted purchase comes four years after the National Treasury allocated Sh1.2 billion to the Judiciary to purchase a property in Muthaiga.
The Muthaiga property comprises buildings, a water reservoir, a swimming pool and other developments and sits on 15.45 acres of land along Coffee Garden Road, off Kiambu Road.
The property was owned by the State-owned Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (Postbank) and housed the Judiciary Training Institute (JTI).
While Postbank would later reveal that it had managed to sell off the property to another government agency for a sum of Sh1.5 billion, it failed to disclose if the buyer was the Judiciary.
This comes even as the Judiciary says that its funding from the exchequer is still less than half of its annual resource requirements, leading to a cash crunch that has derailed the effective administration of justice.
The funding shortfall, the Judiciary says, has affected the construction of offices and courts, facilitation of benches and service weeks, operationalisation of the small claims courts and sustenance of the pro bono scheme.
“This shortfall has grossly affected the implementation of critical programmes such as operationalisation of new courts. Out of 22 court stations gazette in the last MTEF (medium term expenditure frameworks), only six have been operationalised to date,” it said.
