Hilarious reactions to Supreme Court judgment

Chief Justice David Maraga

After Supreme Court judges announced the invalidation of 2017 presidential elections, the historic judgment was received with song and dance by Opposition supporters in various parts of the country.

Some National Super Alliance (NASA) supporters took to social media to celebrate the unprecedented ruling, which will force the beleaguered electoral commission to conduct a fresh presidential election within 60 days.

As expected, Chief Justice David Maraga, who led the Supreme Court judges emerged as the man of the moment, with his name dominating conversations, with majority of Twitter and Facebook users heaping praises on him.

Shortly after he made the judgment, memes of Justice Maraga were widely shared online and some people dug up video clips of the CJ swearing during the vetting of judges and magistrates in 2011, that he has never taken a bribe.

It is the picture of a man perched on top of a street sign at the City Hall Way - Wabera Street roundabout, near the Supreme Court that however broke the internet. The man pasted a piece of paper written Judge Maraga Street on the street sign, effectively renaming it.

Netizens also poked fun at the fate of ‘vifaranga vya kompyuta’ (computer generated leaders), a term coined by Raila Odinga to refer to the Jubilee duo of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto.

On Friday after the judgment was announced, a picture of three dead chicks surfaced and was shared widely, perhaps signaling the end of vifaranga vya kompyuta. More poetic ones claimed tongue-in-cheek; ‘Maraga amekaranga vifaranga.’

That the Supreme Court ruling set a precedent in the region is not in doubt considering that Kenya is the fourth country in the world to have a presidential election nullified.

Other countries that have had their elections nullified are Austria, Maldives and Ukraine.

This fact did not escape some online users who took the opportunity to deride Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Many wondered how the no-nonsense Museveni was feeling after learning that the Supreme Court of Kenya had nullified the presidential elections.

Coincidentally, the election of Museveni, the president of a country where the Judiciary is often accused of being biased against the incumbent, was also challenged by a former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi in March 2016.

But Mr Mbabazi’s petition was dismissed, effectively paving the way for the 71-year-old National Resistance Movement leader to extend his thirty-year reign.

“I think Museveni is shivering after hearing what Supreme Court of Kenya did,” one Peter Matara on Facebook.