According to the Standard Online, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has denied claims that he was bribed during petitions that challenged the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
In a post on his Facebook page, the CJ said he has been hurt by the allegation and said he would order the arrest of anyone who tries to hurt him.
“For me the most hurtful allegation was that I had been bribed in the Presidential Petition. I did not know where to turn. I have never been offered a bribe in my life,” he stated.
He challenged those attacking the judiciary to petition for their removal from office by the Judicial Service Commission.
He stated: “If you have any evidence of our wrong doing the Constitution under its Article 168 allows you to petition the Judicial Service Commission for our removal. And if you do not have such evidence then give us justice, treat us as family, compatriots and fellow human beings!”
The CJ said the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court has recently been under attacked by Kenyans in what he termed as “slander, libel, and outright indecent, vulgar, and unacceptable abuses.”
He said such attacks were unwarranted and hurtful to members of the judiciary and their families.
“We are human beings and we hurt, too. We have families that are hurting because of these attacks,” said the CJ saying the Judiciary demands from Kenyans the justice that they demand from the Judiciary.
Several things can be said about what the CJ has said.
First of all let this writer make it clear he does not believe the CJ himself was bribed; his belief is the CJ was threatened with removal from office even if Uhuru did not become president because Jubilee has the majority in both houses and what votes they would need to cross the constitutional threshold to impeach him they can buy or coerce.
One can therefore understand why the CJ will go along with a decision even he surely must agree flies in the face of facts and the reality of what happened in the 2013 elections.
Understanding, however, doesn’t make the CJ innocent of failure to deliver justice in a fair, unbiased and impartial manner as a justice is expected to do neither does it make it any better than being bribed for wrong is wrong and the CJ along with his other justices in the court got the decision wrong and contrary to the law and facts for which they must remain judged accordingly.
If there was any doubts as to the wrongness of the decision and how it lacked any basis in fact or law, that doubt was removed when the court issued an opinion few will disagree is intellectually shallow and an embarrassment to the court itself and country.
That being the case, one can expect people without any rational answer for the court’s shocking decision to come up with their own rationalizations and explanations to try and make sense of it even when one cannot.
Having made the bed, the court must lie on it.
As to CJ threatening to “direct” that anyone saying he was bribed to be arrested, that’s another shocker!
Does the CJ not know something called freedom of speech guaranteed under the very constitution he was not only sworn to uphold but to lead in upholding?
Where is the criminality in people expressing their views so long as they are not deemed or can be proven to be hate speech?
The CJ, like anyone else, can go to court and sue for slander and libel but good luck suing for “outright indecent, vulgar, and unacceptable abuses” and given he is a public figure for which there is a higher standard of proof and often hard to prove case for slander and libel, good luck on that, too.
When the CJ invites those with evidence of wrongdoing on his part to go to court, he forgets this is the court the very same people know justice cannot ultimately not be found on matters such as this because they believe the court was wrongly influenced to reach the decision they did in in dismissing Raila and AfriCog’s petitions so it’s futile to go to the same court seeking justice for criticizing or condemning the same wrongness.
The justices may be hurting from the criticism but the country is hurting even more from their decision which has destroyed at least a majority of the country’s faith and belief in the Supreme Court’s impartiality, fairness and competence it’ll take years, if not decades for the Court to regain that faith and confidence.
Update:
This blog is based on reporting on the Facebook post by the Chief Justice. Another reporting on the same post says as regards having people arrested:
“I have no doubt in my mind that anybody who dares offer me a bribe, regardless of what status, would be the first one I arrest under the Constitution and the laws of this land.”
The CJ is also quoted in this version as having posted as to being slandered or defamed:
I do not believe I should sue fellow Kenyans in defamation. All I can demand from Kenyans in justice that they demand of me and the Judiciary I head.
That being the case, references to these two issue in the original version of this blog should be read and understood from this probably updated post by the CJ.
