The Court Of Appeal has a new president now following the swearing in of Justice William Ouko on Tuesday by Chief Justice David Maraga.

Ouko secured the position after garnering 16 votes beating Justice Alnashir Visram who secured four votes.

Justice William Ouko takes over from Justice Kihara Kariuki, who was appointed the Attorney-General.

The president of court of appeal pledged to lead judges in expediting the hearing of pending 4,349 pending cases and ensure cases that are older than five years are concluded by December.

Justice Ouko is widely celebrated as a great champion for judicial reforms in Kenya with lawyers across the country saying the position is well deserved.

“Tighten Investigations On Corruption To Warrant Conviction” Ouko Tells Police

Justice Ouko, while addressing  magistrates and Kadhis at a different forum in Naivasha, also asked the police to ensure they do solid investigations on corruption suspects in order to provide water tight evidence to warrant a conviction and not use the judiciary as a scape goat.

“Present a case that meets the criminal threshold and expect a conviction. Anything else is a dumping exercise aimed at passing the blame to the courts he said.