The Judiciary has set an ambitious target of ensuring appeals filed before the Court of Appeal are heard and determined within one year, as newly installed Court of Appeal President Justice Gatembu Kairu assumed office with a pledge to clear a backlog of more than 16,000 pending appeals.
Speaking during Justice Kairu's installation on Thursday, Chief Justice Martha Koome challenged the country's second-highest court to use its expanded judicial capacity to accelerate the delivery of justice, saying Kenyans should begin seeing the impact of the recent appointments to the bench.
"The appointment of fifteen additional Judges has addressed the Court's long-standing human resource challenge. The Court must now translate this investment into faster appeals, reduced backlog and improved service delivery," Koome said.
The Chief Justice noted that the Court of Appeal now has 41 judges, up from just 13 in 2021, making it the largest bench in the court's history. During the same period, the number of appeals filed annually nearly doubled from 2,834 to 5,431, while annual case resolutions increased from 1,220 to 4,038. Despite this progress, the court ended the last financial year with 16,436 pending appeals, including 9,954 backlog cases.
Koome said the Judiciary's Social Transformation through Access to Justice (STAJ) Blueprint envisions appeals being heard and concluded within one year of filing.
"Let your legacy be the transformation of the Court into a truly real-time appellate court, one capable of hearing and determining appeals within the year they are filed," she told Justice Kairu.
In his inaugural address, Justice Kairu acknowledged the magnitude of the task ahead, revealing that the Nairobi Court of Appeal is currently hearing civil appeals filed in 2020, meaning many litigants have waited about five years for their cases to be determined.
"As of 14th July 2026, the pending civil appeals countrywide are 11,621. In Nairobi alone, pending civil appeals are 4,787. The Court in Nairobi is currently dealing with appeals filed in the year 2020," he said.
Justice Kairu said the court would prioritise clearing hundreds of pending interlocutory applications, particularly stay orders under Rule 5(2)(b), which he said had diverted the court from its core constitutional mandate of determining appeals.
"We have the responsibility, not only of reducing the backlog, but also the responsibility of optimising judicial resources and ensuring that justice is not only fair but expeditious," he said.
He also pledged to strengthen judicial research, promote consistent jurisprudence, leverage technology, safeguard judicial independence and deepen collaboration with the Law Society of Kenya and other justice sector stakeholders to improve service delivery across all Court of Appeal stations.
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