ODM leader Raila Odinga has waded in the current stand-off between the Executive and the Judiciary over six High Court judges of the High Court President Uhuru Kenyatta declined to approve their names for appointment. In a statement on Saturday, the ODM leader said Kenya cannot survive a supremacy war between its institutions and appealed for President Uhuru Kenyatta and Chief Justice Martha Koome to find a common ground for solving the current impasse.
”In the current standoff between the Judicairy and the Executive, the sense of intertwined fate of branches of government seems lost. I would therefore appeal to all the leaders of our three branches of government the President, the Speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate and the Chief Justice to urgently seek common ground in their grounds in order to achieve a more effective government of the people, by the people and for the people,” he said, adding, ”In the current standoff over refusal by the President to appoint six out of the 41 judges niminated by the JSC for superior courts, I challenge the Executive arm of the government to share with the Judiciary and the public the concerns and evidence that led to the rejection of the six.”
Speaking on Friday during the swearing-in of Daniel Musinga as the president of the Court of Appeal, Chief Justice Martha Koome told President Uhuru Kenyatta he had no option but to appoint the remaining six judges, as recommended by the JSC.
“As Chief Justice and the chairperson of Judicial Service Commission (JSC), all persons recommended for appointment by JSC must be appointed as judges. I am duty-bound to reiterate this position and call on President Kenyatta to appoint the six remaining judges four of whom will join this court,” CJ Koome said.
President Uhuru left out the names of Justices Joel Ngugi, George Odunga, Evans Kiago, Judith Omange, Weldon Korir and Aggrey Muchelule, who sought positions at the appellate court.
