The strained relationship between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Chief Justice David Maraga (pictured) continues unabated as the dispute over appointment of judges escalated yesterday.
In response to the CJ’s attack on the president on Monday, Attorney General Kihara Kariuki yesterday turned the heat on the head of the Judiciary, accusing him of seeking public sympathy to hide his failures and mismanagement of the Judiciary.
Kariuki, the chief legal adviser to the president, said it is immoral for the CJ to rant in public on his frustrations with the Executive when he has a direct line to access the head of state.
“The public attacks against the president have now taken a personal slant and it remains unclear why the CJ is attacking the Head of State, which does not bode for our system of governance and constitutional democracy,” said Kihara.
The CJ had on Monday accused President Kenyatta of refusing to appoint 41 judges despite two court orders directing him to do so in 14 days.
He also accused the Executive of violating court orders and disrespecting the Judiciary. Among these were orders against the eviction of more than 1,000 residents of Kariobangi North last month.
In the National Assembly yesterday, MPs said they will investigate the dispute between the president and Chief Justice that has poisoned the relationship between the Executive and Judiciary arms of government.
Speaker Justin Muturi referred the matter to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, following a request by Ugenya MP David Ochieng that Parliament gets to the bottom of the complaints that the president has refused to swear in High Court judges and has no time for court directives.
Ochieng warned that unresolved differences between the two arms of government have the potential to erode trust in public institutions.
He wants the committee to investigate “instances of any of disobedience of orders, failure to comply with and non-executions of court orders by the executive and its agencies… and measures put in place to ensure court orders are complied with..”
The MP also cited the spiriting of lawyer Miguna Miguna into exile and a shutdown of TV stations in the aftermath of the disputed 2017 elections as other cases that should be investigated by the committee.
Revisit this thing
But yesterday, the AG maintained that the president will not concede to pressure from the CJ to swear-in judges with questionable integrity, and that the Judiciary is to blame for delaying an appeal the government filed against the order giving the president 14 days to appoint the judges.
The bad blood between President Kenyatta and Justice Maraga can be traced to the disputed 2017 presidential election when the CJ oversaw the first Supreme Court nullification of a presidential election in Africa.
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Maraga’s opening remarks when nullifying Uhuru’s win in September 2017 is perhaps the genesis of their frosty relationship and one that will be remembered by many generations to come.
“The greatness of a nation lies in its fidelity to its constitution and strict adherence to the rule of law and above all, the fear of God,” he said before reading the decision nullifying the election.
President Kenyatta did not take the decision lightly and a day later, declared there was a problem with the Judiciary and that he would “revisit” it after the repeat presidential election.
“I respect the court’s decision but we shall revisit this thing. We clearly have a problem in the Judiciary and we must fix it,” he said on September 2, 2017.
From that moment, turf wars between the two have never ended, even after they declared a truce in February this year during the launch of the State of the Judiciary Report for 2019.
The CJ has cut a figure of disappointment over the manner the judicial institution he heads is being handled from within and outside forces, and faulted the Executive for interfering with judicial independence.
President Kenyatta, on the other hand, has accused the Judiciary of slowing down his development agenda through “unjustified” court orders and being the weak link in his government’s renewed fight against corruption.
Serve the people
And with only a year remaining before he retires in June 2021, Maraga might not achieve the agenda he had to transform the Judiciary when he assumed office in September 2016.
If not crying over slashed budget for the Judiciary, the CJ has been decrying his lack of proper recognition, Executive interference with the Judiciary, failure to obey court orders and defending judicial officers when they are accused of corruption and slowing down the wheels of justice.
In another outburst against the Executive last year, the CJ claimed he was aware of plans to remove him from office before the end of his term and complained of the humiliations he had been subjected to at State functions.
“They have been saying that the CJ must be removed from office before the end of this year but I will not resign even if they push me to the wall. I’m not serving to please any CS or PS, I’m here to serve the people,” said Maraga.
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