Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and Gladys Boss Shollei after Shollei was sworn in as the registrar of the judiciary by JSC at Anniversary towers on Monday. Big changes are taking place in the Judiciary. Photo/PHOEBE OKALL
By EMEKA-MAYAKA GEKARA
Posted Thursday, August 25 2011 at 22:30
Posted Thursday, August 25 2011 at 22:30
Change has come to the Judiciary. Those are the words of Mr Mohammed Abdikadir, the chairman of the House Committee on the Implementation of the new Constitution.
“Things have changed,” says the MP.
“The Judiciary is totally different. It has financial independence and institutional autonomy. We have a Supreme Court, judges will be vetted and more appointed. The people of Kenya should reform the other arms of government,” reckons the Mandera Central MP. (Read: Critical reforms taking root in the Judiciary)
Compare this with his friend lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi’s derision of the institution hardly a year ago.
“The Judiciary is so rotten, that its stench has assumed a sense of normalcy. It sells justice using litigants’ balance sheets as the scale,” said Mr Abdullahi now a member the Judicial Service Commission which is mandated to oversee the running of the Judiciary.
Condemned corruption
The combative lawyer, one of the foremost campaigners for reforms in the Judiciary, has consistently condemned corruption, tribalism, inefficiency and gross incompetence in the corridors of justice.
“Ask any lawyer, law student or a law professor of a single profound judgment that shaped the course of Kenya’s destiny written by members of the Judiciary, and the answer is none.”
Indeed, the Judiciary has suffered from a confidence crisis which was partly blamed for the 2008 post-election violence.
This is the disease which the new Constitution sought to cure by demanding vetting of all members of the current Bench.
It has been pointed out that the appointment of “outsiders” Dr Willy Mutunga, a former detainee, as Chief Justice and Ms Nancy Barasa (Deputy Chief Justice), signalled a strong determination to break with the past and entrust the stewardship of the Judiciary with reformist minds.
The irony of the moment is that the victims of the highly compromised Nyayo courts now sit at the top of the very institutions that persecuted them during one the darkest periods of post-independence Kenya.
Today, there are two former detainees at the Supreme Court: Dr Mutunga (President) and judge Mohammed Ibrahim who was detained ahead of the 1990 Saba Saba riots.
Significantly, the institution that was initially used to rubber-stamp decisions by the Executive is lately flexing its muscles, reinforced by new energy of former critics such as Mr Abdullahi and the “children” of the civil society, now increasing attracted to serve in the Judiciary.
Dr Mutunga, Ms Baraza, and Supreme Court judge Njoki Ndung’u are deeply rooted in the civil society movement.
Besides efforts to repair its image, the reform wave in the Judiciary brought home the new culture of transparency in the making of key appointments through the public interviews and vetting of candidates.
The Monday appointment of 28 High Court judges also opened gates for more women and other marginalised groups with strong civil society backgrounds to join the Judiciary.
The high number of lawyers from the private sector who applied for the posts could be an indication that the Bench could be re-gaining its lost glory.
These are the men and women with the difficult task of redeeming the institution which Mr Abdullahi once described as the “greatest threat to national security” .
Those appointed include 14 women, two from Kenyan diaspora, 11 serving magistrates, a woman with albinism and a Kenya-European.
Announcing the appointments, Dr Mutunga celebrated their diversity.
“We have picked candidates from rich diversities decreed by the Constitution and law including gender, ethnicity, county, generation, minorities and other forms of marginalisation,” he said.
“We have recruited 14 women, two Kenyans in the diaspora, a Kenyan-European, a woman with albinism, 11 serving magistrates and this representation is also from various counties and nationalities,” he said.
Those appointed to the High Court included Mr Jonathan Bowen Havelock, a “Kenyan European,” and a former Partner at Kaplan and Stratton Advocates.
Mr Havelock had told the JSC during the interviews that he decided to throw his hat in the ring for the job due to strong signs that the Judiciary could soon regain its independence from the Executive
Appointed, too, was Mrs Lydia Achode who has been the Registrar of the High Court, a 38-year-old Washington State University law professor Ngugi Mwaura and lawyer David Majanja who once served as an assisting counsel in the Waki commission which probed the post-election violence.
For the first time, a woman living with albinism would preside over cases in the High Court. Ms Mumbi Ngugi has been a foremost fighter in defence of the rights of marginalised groups.
The other significant addition to the Judiciary is the tech-savvy Glady’s Shollei as the chief registrar.
Others are magistrates Celicia Githua and Grace Nzioka of Kibera Law Courts and Ms Christine Meoli of Kiambu who is best remembered for participating in the swearing-in of President Kibaki after the controversial 2007 election.
Ms Stella Ngali Mutuku, a registrar at the East Africa Court of Justice, University of Nairobi law lecturer Pauline Nyamweya are also awaiting swearing-in as High Court judges.
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