The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has suspended all pending recruitment, including the much-awaited hiring of 11 judges of the Court of Appeal after the Treasury restricted the expenditure to 15 percent of the appropriated budget.

Chief Justice Martha Koome said in a statement that the circular from the Treasury limits expenditure to only critical and essential services.

“This directive has far-reaching consequences for the operations of the Judiciary and the JSC. In this regard, we are compelled to make major adjustments to planned programmes and activities,” said Justice Koome.

The Judiciary had been allocated Sh24 billion in the national budget, Treasury Cabinet secretary Njuguna Ndung’u read on June 13, an increase from the Sh23.2 billion allocated in the 2023–24 financial year.

Last year’s amount was an increase of about Sh4.3 billion from the allocations in the 2022–23 budget.

Courts have been seeking more money to fund their operations, but it has always been allocated less than requested. President William Ruto’s government promised after getting into office to increase the annual Judiciary budget by Sh3 billion, every year to deliver its mandate.

Dr Ruto declined to assent to the Finance Bill 2024 after protesters expressed their displeasure with some of the tax proposals contained in the Bill.

“Having reflected on the continuing conversation regarding the content of the Finance Bill 2024, and listening keenly to the people of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this Finance Bill 2024, I concede, and therefore I will not sign the 2024 Finance Bill,” he said in a televised address last week.

Interviews for the 11 positions of the Appellate court judges were to start on July 3.

The Court of Appeal has a total of 29 Judges serving in only six stations across the country which translates to nine benches at any given time.

The JSC revealed that the court had a total of 13, 331 pending cases as at May 2024.