Courts across the country remained deserted after a directive to contain the spread of coronavirus.<\/p>\n
Activities at the Supreme Court and Milimani courts, which handle more than 60 per cent of all cases filed in Kenyan courts, were minimal following the directive by Chief Justice David Maraga.\u00a0The partial lock-down has led the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) to file a case that intends to force the State to explain what it is doing to contain the virus.Yesterday, LSK, through lawyer Dudley Ochiel, claimed the Ministry of Health has failed to prepare for scrutiny, a contingency plan on prevention, surveillance, control and response to the outbreak.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Judiciary has responded to the outbreak by closing down operations. That notwithstanding, this case is of public importance and should be heard immediately,” said Mr Ochiel.”We need a proper update on what the government is doing.\u201dDespite the announcement by Justice Maraga, several people turned up in various courts claiming they were not aware of the new directive.<\/p>\n
A litigant who made an appearance yesterday at the Milimani courts said he did not believe the Judiciary lockdown that he learnt of through the media.He said he decided to turn up for the hearing of his criminal case fearing that a warrant of arrest could be issued against him if he failed to show up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose facing criminal cases should be told about the lockdown personally. Not all of us have access to media outlets,\u201d he said.The confusion forced Milimani Court Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi to assure litigants that no warrants of arrest will be issued for failure to turn up in court for the next one month.\u201cAll mentions and hearings will be heard in a months\u2019 time, depending on how the situation will be by that time,\u201d said Andayi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Courts across the country remained deserted after a directive to contain the spread of coronavirus. Activities at the Supreme Court and Milimani courts, which handle more than 60 per cent of all cases filed in Kenyan courts, were minimal following the directive by Chief Justice David Maraga.\u00a0The partial lock-down has led the Law Society of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[770,939,2370,428],"class_list":["post-4410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-chief-justice-david-maraga","tag-coronavirus","tag-milimani-courts","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\n