A renewed push to rebuild confidence in Kenya's justice system has seen Senior Advocate of the High Court Caroline Khasoa call for judges and magistrates facing corruption allegations to be temporarily removed from active case hearings while investigations continue, saying the move, alongside better case management, would help restore trust in the Judiciary and reduce delays that continue to frustrate court users.
Speaking during an interview on Radio Generation on Wednesday, Khasoa said the Judiciary should take practical steps to improve the handling of cases, arguing that poor management of court diaries, rather than workload alone, has become one of the biggest causes of delays in delivering justice.
Her remarks come as the Judiciary remains locked in a dispute with the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), which announced a nationwide boycott of court proceedings over delayed judgments, corruption allegations involving some judicial officers and concerns over accountability. However, on August 3, the High Court stopped the society from disrupting court proceedings pending the hearing and determination of a case challenging the boycott. The interim orders will remain in force until September 17, when the court is expected to issue its ruling.
"The boycott was called by the Law Society of Kenya out of various concerns," she said, identifying delayed delivery of judgments, corruption allegations involving some judicial officers, and strained relations between judicial officers and court users as the key issues that prompted the lawyers' protest.
While acknowledging concerns over corruption within sections of the Judiciary, Khasoa said the actions of a few officers should not be used to judge the entire institution.
"Most judicial officers are doing a good job, but the few who are doing a bad job get assigned to the mess," she said.
She said discussions between the Law Society of Kenya and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) had yielded progress, adding that judicial officers named in corruption allegations had already been put on notice.
"The judges and magistrates who have been mentioned in corruption are on notice," she said. "If you do not do your constitutional call, the Law Society is not going to accept."
Khasoa, however, noted that disciplinary action against some judicial officers has stalled because court orders have stopped the JSC from handling complaints until new procedural rules are put in place.
She argued that judicial officers facing corruption allegations should continue serving the Judiciary in non-adjudicative roles while investigations are completed instead of continuing to preside over cases.
"If other Kenyans step aside when they are under investigations, why would we not have directions for the judge?" she posed. "They can go and do other things. They can do good research and help the administration of justice."
According to Khasoa, such an arrangement would protect public confidence in the Judiciary while safeguarding judicial independence, noting that the affected judges would still earn their salaries as they undertake administrative or research duties.
On the issue of delayed judgments, Khasoa dismissed claims that heavy workloads are the only cause of the problem, saying better planning and scheduling of cases would help courts operate more efficiently.
"You need to manage your court," she said. "You arrange your cases according to your day, and then you need to have a case management conference with the lawyers and with the clients who do not have representation."
She said judges should organise matters according to their complexity, agree on timelines with advocates and ensure court schedules are properly managed to avoid unnecessary delays.
"What happens is that most officers do not start with case management; they start with being overwhelmed. To me, it is pure lack of management," she said.
The concerns come even as the Judiciary continues to reduce its backlog of cases. According to the State of the Judiciary and the Administration of Justice (SOJAR) 2024/25 Report, the backlog dropped by 31 per cent from 244,267 cases in June 2024 to 169,349 cases by June 30, 2025.
Even so, courts across the country still had 598,628 pending cases, with Magistrates' Courts accounting for the highest backlog at 127,264 cases.