Chief Justice David Maraga and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s relationship has been souring by day and this stems back to the nullification of 2017 general election.
After CJ Maraga heard the petition as filed by Uhuru Kenyatta’s top rival NASA brigade that comprised able legal minds like lawyer Otiende Amollo, Uhuru went public and expressed his anger saying he will have to revisit the matter. This simply meant after taking power, him and Ruto will have to use their Statehouse muscles to curtail Maraga’s superiority in the country. Some even said he will use force to push Maraga out of office which attempts have not worked so far.
Maraga nullified Jubilee Party win in September 2017 through a Supreme Court historic ruling that not only left both Uhuru and his running mate Ruto helpless but at the same time breathing fire after Maraga and his judge bench cited open irregularities in the entire process.
The ruling then soured their relationship even more with Uhuru and his deputy Ruto who had served the country for one term promising to hit back in equal measure when they take their power back.
And to keep their promise alive, in September 2010, Judiciary’s budget was slashed down by over sh 3 billion in what the National Treasury said was due to fall in domestic revenue and that there was need to fund the Big Four Agenda, a brain child of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Maraga was left fuming and in some instances, went live on air castigating what Uhuru had done to his docket but promised to remain firm in whatever the circumstances.
He even went as far as calling out the executive over disregarding court orders and setting a bad precedence in the country. He fearlessly lambasted Uhuru for touching on their budget which he claimed was still not enough before slashing.
“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 and plans to automate courts will halt,” he stated at the time.
Uhuru in is sharp rejoinder days later, however, laughed off the remarks saying the judiciary will be able to still move on with the new budget. He also asked Maraga to stop releasing graft suspect through weak bail terms since it was corruption that was draining the country dry and making it hard to run its affairs well.
What then followed was CJ Maraga threats to boycott any Stately functions; and actually he did this in few events where his seat remained unoccupied before he again resurfaced in a Mombasa public event where Uhuru was the Chief Guest.
Uhuru and Maraga then switched to another ugly fight over appointment of Judges which has delayed todate.
And in a sharp twist of events, On Monday Sept 21, Maraga retaliated with another hammer by asking the president to dissolve the parliament for failing to pass the ‘two third gender rule’ what has left Kenyatta’s administration exposed.
Legal pundits have said Uhuru has no alternative, according to the constitution, and he must dissolve the House immediately for fresh by-elections.
