Nairobi — Lawyer Chiuri Ngugi who is seeking to be a Judge of the Appeal Court has proposed disciplinary measures to ensure adherence to case management timelines.

Ngugi who appeared before the Judicial Service Commission on Wednesday said that counsels who waste time, fail to meet directions and ask for more time should be sanctioned.

He argued that in this digital era, counsels do not need an hour to make arguments, saying the Judiciary should borrow from the United States' highest court where counsels are given only 20 minutes, including for rebuttals.

"I think we should be strict with timelines and case management , we should induce discipline as far as case management and submissions are concerned," stated Ngugi.

In addition, Ngugi also said judges have a role to play in ensuring adequately prepared cases at case management stage before they go to trial.

He said there is no need to rush to trial with incomplete files.

Ngugi majorly attributed backlog of cases to inexperienced counsels.

"A counsel who pleads properly, meticulously prosecutes his suits, enables judges to go on without many introductory applications coming in, without many amendments and waste of time, so we need to up our game," he said.

The Commission began interviewing candidates for the position of six Judges of the Court of Appeal on Monday, June 27 and will conclude on July 12, 2022.

Seven other candidates have already faced the panel since the interviews commenced.