Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has waded into the debate on the removal of Chief Justice Martha Koome and other Supreme Court judges.
In a statement issued just a day after his predecessor, Rigathi Gachagua, launched a scathing attack on President William Ruto over the same issue, Kindiki noted that the process of removing a judge was a constitutional one, not a political one.
In a veiled attack on Gachagua, the DP questioned who would defend judges accused of misconduct but lacking 'ethnic godfathers' to support them.
"Removal of a judge from office is purely a constitutional matter and not a political or ethnic issue," Kindiki stated.
"Accusers and defenders of judges must use constitutional and legal arguments to state their positions rather than trivializing such a weighty legal matter by bringing ethnicity into the equation. Who defends the judges who may be innocent but do not have ethnic godfathers?"
Gachagua's impassioned address during his address in Meru over the alleged plan by President Ruto to unseat CJ Koome has since triggered a lot of responses, re-igniting the debate
Speaking in Meru, the former DP announced that he would be calling for protests if the Chief Justice was removed from office. He accused the President of trying to purge all Mount Kenya leaders who helped him ascend to power.
For months, former Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Nelson Havi, alongside other senior advocates like Ahmednarrir Abdullahi, has been pushing for the overhaul of the apex court and the removal of CJ Koome and its other 6 judges.
Therefore, Havi also faulted Gachagua for attacking the President in his address. Instead, he urged the former DP to attack him as it was 'his war'.
"Why is Rigathi Gachagua threatening President William Ruto over the removal of the recalcitrant Martha Koome from office?" Havi asked.
"Let him threaten and order protests against me. I have been consistent on the unsuitability of Koome from the day she applied for the office of CJ. It is my war."
So far, all efforts to unseat Koome have hit a roadblock. Although petitions have already been filed to remove the seven, both the High Court in Narok and Nairobi have issued conservatory orders stopping the Judiciary Service Commission (JSC) from acting on any of the petitions.
