By Eliud Mutwiri
President William Ruto now says he is ready for talks with the judiciary after more than two
weeks of his sustained attacks on the judicial arm of government.
This comes days after Chief Justice Martha Koome said that the Judicial Service Commission
(JSC) had written to the President to ask him to engage in talks over the row between the
executive and the judiciary.
“We have written requesting for an appointment with the president so that we as the
commission (JSC) can have a dialogue to discuss and find out what is the real issue,” Koome
said on Monday when addressing the press.
Although the President maintained his tough stand of dealing with corrupt judicial officers and
corruption within the government, he welcomed talks with the judiciary.
“I welcome the conversation and I am going to lead from the front in that conversation so that
we can deal with the monster that is destroying our country and deal with the corrupt,” responded the head of state on Tuesday.
The Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua who is expected to provide corruption evidence against
Justice Esther Maina has however hit back on CJ Koome maintaining that every judicial official
must be held accountable.
Gachagua insisted on accountability saying, “The President and the Executive are accountable
to the Parliament and the people of Kenya. The parliament is accountable to wananchi. The
judiciary must also be accountable to the people of Kenya and they must be questioned.”
On his part, National Assembly majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah urged the Chief Justice not to
defend corrupt individuals within the judiciary to ensure the transparency and accountability of
the judiciary is upheld.
The President said that the three arms of government – The executive, the Legislator, and the
Judiciary- will be engaged in the said dialogue.
The President started the year 2024 by attacking the judiciary over what he said was being used
by those against the Kenya Kwanza development agenda to sabotage government projects.
Ruto who inspected the Nandi County Co-operative Creameries in Kabiyet also officiated the
opening of the Konza Digital Skills Lab (Jitume Programme) at the Kaiboi National Polytechnic
and Tinderet Integrated Technical and Trainers College.
Ends…
Eliud Mutwiri is a reporter and news anchor at KUTV. He has a bias for reporting political, business, and human-interest stories. Other areas of interest are environment, climate change and climate action reporting.