This archive report was first published on 9 June 2020.
Kenya's Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki has defended President Uhuru Kenyatta over the appointment of 41 judges, saying the President is not a 'rubber stamp' for the Judicial Service Commission.
The row between the Executive and the Judiciary escalated on June 8, 2020, when Chief Justice David Maraga accused the President of frustrating the courts by disregarding court orders.
However, the AG argued that the President has a constitutional role in the appointment of judges and cannot simply accept all the nominees of the Judicial Service Commission without questioning their integrity.
He cited the case of some nominees whose credibility was questioned, and said that any attempt to endorse the whole list would have meant that the President would have disregarded some provisions of the law on credibility.
The AG also accused Chief Justice Maraga of laxity in handling corruption cases, saying that the Judiciary has historically suffered from case backlogs largely caused by internal factors.
On the issue of court orders, the AG branded as an unsubstantiated allegation the claim by the CJ that the Executive disobeyed court orders and proceeded to illegally evict over 1,000 families in Kariobangi, Nairobi.
He also stated that the CJ meddled in an issue before the court and without using concrete facts pre-empted the outcomes of events threatening the realisation of justice.
Regarding pending bills, the AG claimed that the government had paid Sh1.5 billion since July 2019 towards such bills and that the remaining amount is only Sh113 million.
He argued that the Executive had to scrutinise the claims to avoid losing money in dubious ways.
