Milimani Law Courts shut down as all staff ordered to go home over coronavirus

Operations have been completely grounded at the Milimani law courts in Nairobi with all staff being directed to go home in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak in Kenya.

A spot-check by Citizen Digital confirmed a total shutdown of the Milimani law courts which is usually a beehive of activity on a normal day.

The corridors and courtrooms remained empty, with the main doors being shut.

This comes after the National Council for the Administration of Justice led by Chief Justice David Maraga on Sunday resolved to scale down operations and suspend open court sessions as part of measures to prevent spread of the coronavirus disease.

On Monday, Chief Justice David Maraga issued a guideline outlining additional measures the Judiciary would be taking to prevent its staff and the public from infection.

Justice Maraga announced that members of the public will not be allowed entry into court premises with effect from Monday, March 16 save those coming to file very urgent matters.

“Heads of Stations are hereby directed to inform security personnel acaccordingly, and issue notices to this effect,” reads the statement.

The Chief Justice further directed that each court should maintain a skeleton staff of three
(including a Court Administrator and Court Assistant) to serve at the Customer Care desk for
purposes of attending to urgent filings and inform the duty Judge/Magistrate accordingly for necessary action.

All other staff are expected to work from home unless otherwise instructed by their supervisors.