This archive report was first published on 12 June 2021.
On June 8, 2021, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga wrote a strongly worded letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta, expressing his deep concern over the President's recent judiciary appointments.
According to the letter, dated June 8, 2021, and written on the former CJ's official letterhead, Mutunga condemned the apparent violation of the Constitution, schooling the President on the meaning of the oath of office he took.
"I have elected to speak elaborately and strongly on this issue because when apparently innocuous and blithe breaches to the Constitution begin to occur, especially from the highest office in the land, they signal a dangerous dalliance with impunity," Mutunga stated in his letter.
Mutunga asked President Kenyatta to resign from office if he felt that he could not uphold the Constitution he swore to obey and protect.
"If any public officer does not like the powers the Constitution donates to them, or find the exercising of those powers annoyingly inconvenient, they have no business continuing to occupy those offices," the former CJ advised the President.
Mutunga also criticized the President's decision to omit the names of six judges and judicial officers from the list, calling it a 'presidential list of hate' driven by personal pique rather than principle.
He urged President Kenyatta to simply swear in the six judges, including Justices George Odunga, Joel Ngugi, Weldon Korir, and Aggrey Muchelule, as well as Evans Makori and Judith Cheruiyot, who had been nominated for the High Court.
"It is urgent that the president immediately appoints the six judges, many of whom are exceptional, because that's what fairness, common decency, the rule of law, and Constitution require. The independence and accountability of the judiciary is not negotiable," Mutunga stated.
