Acting Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu has said she is qualified to take over the post on a permanent basis giving the clearest indication so far that she may apply for the job.
“I hold the office of the Deputy Chief Justice of the republic of Kenya. The qualifications for that office are the same qualification for the office of the Chief Justice,” she said.
The acting CJ did not rule out or confirm whether she will apply for the post or not insisting only that she was qualified.
Last Friday, Maraga handed over the leadership of the judiciary to Justice Mwilu making her the first woman ever to lead the third arm of the government.
Today Justice Mwilu made her maiden tour to the Mombasa Law Courts in her current capacity where she revealed that in the coming days she will make changes in the judiciary.
She said the changes are necessitated by recent promotion of 185 judicial officers, shortfalls in key departments and implementation of the ICT systems in the judiciary.
On December 10, last year, JSC promoted 22 senior principal magistrates to the position of Chief Magistrates. The others were promoted to the position of senior principal magistrate, principal magistrate, senior resident magistrates and senior and principal kadhi.
Mwilu said the streamlining of e-system, reorganization of the workforce and standardization of the court fees will be her priority during her tenure as the acting CJ.
A tough talking Mwilu also put on notice officers in the judiciary sabotaging the E-filing system saying “all bottlenecks that are on the way of the e-filing will be removed from the way.”
She said her office has received several complaints about the E-filing and that some lawyers have even confided to her that some judicial officers were sabotaging the system.
Justice Mwilu said if the e-filing breaks down for genuine reasons then the judiciary should within 20 minutes activate the fall back plan. A committee has been established to come up with the plan.
“I’ve been told that there are people in the judiciary sabotaging the e-filing. I want to say in the days I will be acting, the e-filing system is my priority and I’ll make sure it works,” said Mwilu.
She said that a committee has been constituted to make sure that litigants are facilitated to file their papers whenever the e-filing systems are down.
Justice Mwilu said she will also implement the report on the standardization of court fees which “was complicated and kept somewhere in the Chief Justice’s office.”