'I am clean', CJ Mutunga says

By Dr Willy Mutunga

A lie will go halfway round the world before the truth wears its shoes – Mark Twain

Truth is tough, so said Oliver Wendell Holmes. “It will not break like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day, like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.”

While the foregoing is true, I am concerned that barefaced falsehoods are becoming commonplace in public discourse, an example being Tuesday’s opinion comment in this newspaper under Mr Timothy Bosire’s name.

Seeking release

There is a misplaced belief that if the unfortunate, inaccurate and reckless claims by the Law Society of Kenya about my alleged interference in the vetting of judges and magistrates are repeated, they will somehow transform into truth.

Never have I, nor will I, communicate to the authorities dealing with the vetting of judicial officers seeking to influence the outcome of their processes.

It is a brazen fabrication to allege that I have intervened in the vetting process – either in my personal or official capacity.

The Vetting Board has not complained to me or to the public that I am interfering with their work with respect to any matter. Surely the Board can speak for itself.

For the record, I wish to restate the facts at the heart of the current controversy.

Justice Mohammed Ibrahim wrote to me on May 2, seeking release from the Bench to enable him to complete his rulings and judgments. On May 4,I replied, granting his request.

On September 4, Justice Ibrahim wrote to me to report that he had completed his judgments and rulings within the period he had sought leave.

Public domain

I wrote a two-line acknowledgment letter to Justice Ibrahim thanking him for completing his work, with copies to the LSK and its concerned branches to inform them – since they had complained about delays in delivering these judgments and rulings.

This letter was not even copied to the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board.

Releasing judges from the Bench is routine, as is asking them to complete judgments, as was recently the case in Kisii when the Law Society of Kenya requested as much.

These facts have been in the public domain since the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary officially wrote to the Law Society of Kenya last week. The same communication has been made available to the media.

It is scandalous for anyone to suggest that writing a letter of acknowledgement to a Judge amounts to the Chief Justice lending assistance in dealing with the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board.

The writer has gone ahead to make conclusions on the basis of a rumour and in the event made severely injurious allegations.

He has alleged that I have unprocedurally stepped in to rescue a judge, and joined a club of elites who prefer personal convenience to the rule of law.

Further, the same writer has accused me of rushing to Justice Ibrahim’s defence while abandoning other judges facing vetting. I have made my position unequivocal since receiving the first determination from the Vetting Board.

My tenure as Chief Justice has been consistent with the reform agenda, evidence of which is found not just in the public record, but in actual and discernible institutional reforms in the Judiciary.

Hidden motive

The writer may plead ignorance but the editor who publishes these views cannot have that defence. It is difficult to imagine how a lead opinion based on supposition and conjecture – and which clearly causes injury to so many – can enjoy pride of place in a national newspaper.

I am persuaded that any deliberate jaundiced view on any Judge or magistrate vetting does not serve the cause of fairness or justice and undermines the constitutional purposes that it was intended to serve.

The deliberate distortion of facts and the subsequent innuendo are not only unfair, but also smack of hidden motives that must come to light.

The writer is Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya.