In a tense press conference earlier on Monday, the Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya David Kenani Maraga spoke boldly about the inconveniencing budget cuts at the judiciary.
The CJ termed the incessant vetting of judiciary officials as an attempt to control the judiciary and 'make it a puppet'.
“Judges and Magistrates will not be vetted, it will only happen if it is countrywide and involves other government officials…Judiciary does not interfere with other arms of govt…WE ARE TIRED OF BEING THE PUNCHING BAG ALL THE TIME. Why are they interested in our affairs? It is because they want to control the Judiciary. They want to make the judiciary a puppet”
Over two years ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta, after stealing the elections and his plans backfired, he threatened to REVISIT the judiciary.
Many Kenyans, going by the conversations online, think that the budget cuts which have crippled the judiciary is the REVISITING he had promised.
Thank you Maraga, maybe this is the end of the handshake honeymoon and now may the rubber meet the road. Budget Cuts The budget cuts have now crippled some of the sittings in far flung areas. CJ Maraga announced that due to the lack of money, some services such as virtual courts systems (for people in the diaspora) and mobile court units will be discontinued immediately.
He reminded the rogue Jubilee regime that the funds belong to Kenyans. 'I am not serving at the pleasure of any CS or PS…We do not go out to look for cases, cases come to us…I will not go to look for public funds from anybody. Those are public funds;, Maraga affirmed. Snippets from CJ speech “Unless the budget cuts are reversed, we do not have money for fuel, we will not have mobile courts, we will not have the court of Appeal circuits, we will not be able to pay for wi-fi for the e-filing and e-payments, plans to automate corruption courts will halt…” – CJ Maraga "As the judiciary budget is dwindling, the workload is growing. The backlog will continue to pile up. We also have challenges in Treasury releases of what we are allocated. The IFMIS system was opened for a very short time" – CJ Maraga "Judiciary does not require a lot of money to build courts. We need 5-6 B every year to have courts everywhere in the next 10 years" – CJ Maraga “The CJ has no Mercedes. When we applied we were told to keep to 2500cc…Yet the 2 speakers of the NA have Mercedes 500...The CJ is not accorded the respect of his office. I have decided that until that happens, I will choose which State functions to attend” – CJ Maraga “Unless the budget cuts are reversed, we do not have money for fuel, we will not have mobile courts, we will not have the court of Appeal circuits, we will not be able to pay for wi-fi for the e-filing and e-payments, plans to automate corruption courts will halt…” – CJ Maraga "I receive visitors and high delegations such as CJs from other countries. Where do I take them? I do not have a place to indulge them I asked for protocol cars to move these visitors but they were not availed to me" – CJ Maraga