President Uhuru Kenyatta is expect to with the Chief Justice David Maraga today.
This happens to be the first official dsitting between President Kenyatta and CJ Maraga after the nullification of the August 8th elections 2017.
The agendas that are expected in the meeting include the nomination of Court of Appeal judge Justice Mohammed Warsame to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) as well as have an amicable end to the wars with the Executive and the Legislature, since it comes just days after JSC members had a joint retreat with Parliament’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee in Mombasa, where they discussed the reduced funding for the Judiciary and Justice Warsame. Parliament had insisted on vetting the judge before he could be gazetted as a JSC member but in July, High Court judge Enoch Chacha Mwita ruled that the legislators’ move was illegal. At the time, the Law Society of Kenya had sued to stop the MPs from vetting Justice Warsame.
Appellate Court judges voted for Justice Warsame to represent them in the JSC, but MPs insisted on vetting him first.
JSC member Tom Ojienda on Wednesday told the Nation that the parliamentary committee members had agreed to push for the reinstatement of the funds slashed from the Judiciary’s allocation for this financial year.
The Judiciary’s spending for the 2018/2019 financial year was capped at Sh17.3 billion before Parliament slashed it further to Sh14.5 billion, leaving only Sh50 million for development.
“I think the talks were fairly positive and there have been engagements. We justified to them why we need the Sh1.8 billion to deal with pending court projects. The committee agreed to push the agenda to Parliament. There is also engagement with the Executive, but we are looking forward to a more formal approach,” Prof Ojienda said.
“What happened during last year’s elections of course laid a basis for some of these actions, there is no doubt about that. But it’s our job as a commission to bridge this gap. In under two weeks the commission should be fully operational,” he added.
Being at the centre of a power struggle between the Judiciary and Executive is not new to Justice Warsame. He was among the six JSC commissioners suspended in 2013 following a petition passed in the National Assembly.
The others were lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, magistrate Emily Ominde, Samuel Kobia, Ms Christine Mango, and Ms Florence Mwangangi.