Chief Justice David Maraga's team on Tuesday, November 5, escalated the war with President Uhuru Kenyatta after the CJ's outburst a day before.
According to a report by The Standard, the Maraga-led Judicial Service Commission (JSC) blamed delays in the Judiciary on Uhuru's failure to appoint judges.
The JSC further refuted claims by Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua that it had received a report from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) detailing the integrity status of each of the judges.
Instead, the commission clarified, it only received a letter from the spy agency on July 5 that only showed that it had damaging information on some of the appointed judges.
"None of the reports were furnished and no particulars of the alleged adverse reports were provided to enable the commission to put the reports to the affected candidates for their response,” stated JSC in a statement.
This came four months after the JSC appointed the 41 judges who were expected to fill vacant spaces at the Appeal, Labour and Lands courts.
Uhuru, in his defence of the failure to appoint the judges, explained that he would be showing irresponsibility by gazetting individuals whose records were tainted.
Lawyer Adrian Kamotho filed a lawsuit in an attempt to compel the president to act, an action that attracted a replying affidavit from Kinyua.
“It would be irresponsible and contrary to the oath of office for the president to appoint judges, or indeed any other public or state officers to office, where serious questions have been raised about their integrity – more so judges who enjoy security of tenure and whose probity and integrity should be above reproach,” read the affidavit.
On Monday, November 4, Maraga publicly voiced frustrations in his office following adverse budget cuts lamenting that his office was being disrespected.
While addressing members of the press in front of the Supreme Court in Nairobi, Maraga disclosed that the budget cuts imposed on the Judiciary were hurting service delivery countrywide.
“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.
