Parliament Appoints Largest Cohort of Judges Since 2010

Parliament announced the appointment of 111 new judges for Federal Courts on June 23, 2016. This is the largest number of appointees to the judiciary since 2010, taking the number of judges at Federal Courts to 295, a significant increase from 56 in 2005/6. Two judges were appointed to the Supreme Court, 34 judges to the High Court and 75 to the Federal First Instance Court.

Screening to find competent appointees took more than a year and involved 3,000 applicants.

The majority of the judges at the Federal Courts, 85pc, hold Bachelor of Laws degrees, while 14pc have Masters degrees in Law and the remaining one per cent have diplomas.

Data from the Judges' Administrative Council show that 18 judges resigned from their posts at Federal Courts and three were disbarred for disciplinary reasons in the current fiscal year.

Prior to 2000, all three Federal Courts were limited to concluding a maximum of 28,000 cases. However, in just nine months of the current fiscal year, Federal Courts passed verdicts on more than 119,709 cases.

Source: AllAfrica