Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya, Justice David Maraga has announced that the Judiciary will significantly scale down court activities with immediate effect for the next two weeks.
Maraga made the announcement on Sunday after the National Council on Administration of Justice met and resolved to implement a raft of measures to control the spread of Covid-19 virus.
In compliance with the directive issued to protect members of the public and staff from infection, Maraga announce that courts activities to be scaled down throughout the country for two weeks starting 16 March 2020 in order to allow for consultation and design appropriate measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
During the two-week period, prisoners and remandees will not be brought to court.
All new cases and arrests except serious ones will be dealt with at the police station in accordance with the guidelines to be issued by the Inspector General of Police.
Hearings and mentions of all civil cases in all the courts are suspended with immediate effect. All execution proceedings are also suspended within the period.
Although judiciary staff will continue to report to work, open court appearances have also been suspended
The courts will however continue to handle certificates of emergency and taking plea in serious cases.
During the period the courts will review cases before it that do not require presence of suspects in court such as reviewing mail terms of those in remand.
Only serious cases will proceed to court while new cases and arrests will be dealt with at the police stations .
Below is the full statement on the Judiciary's response to the Covid-19 virus in Kenya.