This archive report was first published on 10 November 2019.
On November 10, 2019, the Judiciary in Kenya found itself at the receiving end of a vicious attack from the Executive and Legislature.
The Executive and Legislature have been waging a war against the Judiciary, with the Executive denying the Judiciary funding and Parliament reducing its budget.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had previously threatened to take revenge against the Judiciary after the Supreme Court annulled his August 2017 poll win.
He had abused the Supreme Court judges, calling them a 'crooked sextet unfit to reverse the will of millions of Kenyans.'
Parliament had swiftly reduced the Judiciary's budget by Sh1.9 billion to cater for the court-ordered October 26 re-vote.
President Kenyatta had also refused to approve 40 nominees for judges, saying they were tainted by issues of integrity.
The Treasury had then slashed the Judiciary's budget by a whopping 50 per cent.
Chief Justice David Maraga called a news conference on Monday, exposing the financial choke-hold the Executive had imposed on the Judiciary and its adverse effects on the delivery of justice.
He said that thanks to budget cuts, mobile court circuits had ceased, the High Court could no longer sit outside Nairobi, and tackling the case backlog was in jeopardy.
At a personal level, the CJ said he was not accorded the same respect as Cabinet Secretaries, especially at public functions.
He took his case against his tormentors to the court of public opinion, saying that the Judiciary wanted to serve the people and was doing everything within its power to dispense justice, but was increasingly crippled.
The CJ warned that a Judiciary that was a puppet of the Executive would equally be available for rent and auction by and for the rich few and the wheeler-dealer cartels against the deserving legion poor.
