JSC renews search for 150 judges, magistrates and khadis

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has reopened recruitment of 150 officers including judges, which had been frozen last year following budget cuts.

In addition to the 45 vacancies for Judge of the Court of Appeal (15 slots), Judge of the High Court (20 slots) and Judge of the Environment and Land Court (10 slots), the JSC has also invited applications for Resident Magistrate (60 slots), Resident Kadhi (5 slots) and Resident Magistrate/ Adjudicator Small Claims Court (40 slots).

Interested and qualified persons to visit the JSC’s jobs portal, jsc.go.ke-jobs2, for detailed job descriptions, requirements for appointment and instructions on how to apply. The applications deadline is June 30 at 5 pm.

In the 2024/25 financial year, JSC was forced revoked a planned recruitment of 16 High Court and Court of Appeal judges after the Judiciary’s 2004/20025 budget was cut by 15 per cent as part the austerity measures enforced by President William Ruto following the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 in the wake of the Gen Z protests.

Chief Justice Martha Koome, who chairs JSC, said at the time that they were compelled to make major adjustments to planned programmes and activities, including recruitment of the judges.

According to Koome, the Court of Appeal had a total of 29 Judges serving in three different stations across the country, with a total of 13,331 pending cases as of May 2024.

She said they have made efforts to increase the maximum number of judges from 30 to 70 by amending the Judicature Act.

The figures have since gone down following the deaths of High Court judges David Majanja and Daniel Ogembo last year.

In November 2024, Koome also revealed that funding for the Judiciary has consistently fallen short by nearly 50 per cent for the past three financial years saying this limited its capacity to meet the expanding demands of the institution.

She cited the need for further investment to fully staff the Judiciary to meet the needs of a growing caseload and enhance service delivery.

“In the past financial year, we received only Ksh 22.42 billion, significantly below the required budget of Ksh 43.17 billion. This funding gap restricts our ability to expand infrastructure, enhance security, and support the wellness of our judicial personnel,” the CJ noted during the presentation of the State of the Judiciary and the Administration of Justice (SOJAR) Report 2023/24 in Nairobi.

Later, JSC also announced the cancellation of 171 internship opportunities for degree and diploma holders due to budget limitations.

JSC Secretary Winfred Mokaya stated that the Judiciary lacked the financial capacity to give the internship opportunities, hence the decision to withdraw.

“This is to notify the general public and the applicants that, owing to the fiscal constraints affecting the country, the JSC has cancelled the advertisement for the following positions…The commission regrets any inconvenience caused,” the JSC Secretary said in her statement.

JSC had planned to recruit 60 legal researchers, in addition to offering 111 internship opportunities in different fields.

In the Judiciary’s Mid-Term Economic Framework Report for the Financial Years 2025/26 and 2027/28, it says its established resource requirement for FY 2025/26 is Ksh 40.1 billion out of which Ksh 31.6 billion and Ksh 8.5 billion are the recurrent and development vote requirements respectively