‘Corruption cases taking too long in court,’ Ruto defends additional Judiciary budget

President William Ruto has disclosed that the government agreed to provide additional budgetary allocation to the Judiciary to employ 36 more judges in order for them to be deployed to anti-corruption courts.

Speaking on Tuesday during the official opening of the Gilgil Technical and Vocational College in Nakuru County, President Ruto said the move was to help clear the backlog of corruption-related cases to help the country move forward.

The President referred to the just concluded Anglo Leasing case of the late ‘90s, saying cases were taking too long to be prosecuted and thus deeming it almost impossible to end corruption in the country.

“We agreed that the government will set aside more money to employ more judges for the Judiciary, so that those judges are deployed to anti-corruption so that we deal with those perennial corrupt people,” he said.

“A corruption case is taking 10 to 20 years. Recently, you all saw the Anglo Leasing case, which took over 30 years in court. People do not even know what the case was about. Children were born, they have grown and studied up to the university and then they are told about Anglo Leasing.”

He added: “That is why we convened the meeting so that we can deal with the challenge of corruption, incompetence and vested interests that are undermining the development of our country.”

The Head of State underscored that the recent standoff between the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature was addressed during the State House meeting on Monday, adding that from now onwards the three arms of government will partner to eradicate graft in the nation.

He reiterated his past remarks that corrupt individuals with vested interests had been colluding with some corrupt judicial officers to sabotage his agenda for the public and derail developments.

“We have agreed that vested interest and people who have hijacked our manifesto are using the Judiciary, to sabotage development in Kenya and they are taking us backwards. It is denying our youths the opportunity to secure employment and other Kenyans from accessing medical care,” Ruto noted.

“We agreed that as the arms of government, we will work together. The Parliament, Judiciary and Executive so that we get rid of corruption for our country to move forward.”

During the Monday meeting, leaders from all three branches of government acknowledged the serious threat posed by corruption, recognising its infiltration into every aspect of governance.

“The Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary agree to individually develop policies, guidelines, regulations and legislative proposals to achieve the objectives of fighting corruption, improving service delivery and enhancing institutional accountability of all arms of Government to the people of Kenya,” read a communique from State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohammed.

The Executive and Legislature pledged to support the Judiciary's request for additional budgetary allocation.

This includes provisions for the recruitment of 25 judges for the High Court and 11 judges for the Court of Appeal, as well as resources to complete the vehicle leasing programme to meet the judiciary's transportation needs.