Chief Justice Martha Koome has revealed plans to designate special courts to handle hate speech cases during the electioneering period.
The special Magistrates’ Courts will be based in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret and Nakuru Counties.
This even as Interior CS Fred Matiang’i said the Government will provide over 5,500 police officers to support IEBC during the period.
The two spoke during the Inter-Government Consultative Meeting on Election Preparedness at the Kenya School of Government Monday Morning chaired by the CJ.
“With more resources, better equipment and valuable lessons from past elections, the Government is well prepared to support IEBC and other state agencies in ensuring the electoral process is secured,” He said.
Koome said the Judiciary’s election preparedness budgetary deficit in the FY 2021/22 stands at Ksh 710mn and a further Ksh 1.3bn in the FY 2022/23 that urgently needs to be met.
“We have put in place a comprehensive work plan by the JCE that will guarantee that the Judiciary optimally undertakes its dispute resolution mandate,” She said.
Koome also emphasized the need for Parliament to enact the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2017 that will cure some of the challenges experienced by the Judiciary during the 2017 election cycle.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairperson Wafula Chebukati informed the team that turnout of new voters in the ongoing mass voter registration exercise slated to end on 2nd November 2021 remains alarmingly low.
He said only 760,000 new voters have so far been registered against the commission’s target of 4.5million.
The forum was attended by IEBC , Cabinet Secretaries Fred Matiang’i and Joe Mucheru, Attorney General Paul Kihara, Solicitor General Ken Ogeto and IG of Police Hillary Mutyambai among other key stakeholders.
