The newly elected Senate leadership paid a courtesy call on Chief Justice David Maraga at the Supreme Court building in Nairobi on Monday 15, June 2020.
Majority Chief Whip Irungu Kang’ata together with his counterpart, Majority Leader Samuel Poghisio termed the visit as their first role in their new positions.
While addressing the after the meeting with the two Senate leaders, CJ Maraga said the purpose of the meeting was to explore ways of cooperation between the Senate and his office.
“They requested to see me this morning, you know they were recently elected into office. It’s just a courtesy call,” CJ Maraga said in a statement.
Maraga said they discussed quite a number of matters; how the judiciary could cooperate and work with the Senate. Maraga also acknowledged that the two bodies are independent but their independence does not mean they cannot work together.
The Senate majority leader, Mr. Phoghisio said, ” This is one of our first assignments. We wanted to have a moment to visit the head of the Judiciary and also know how we can work together; there are many issues that some to Senate, there are many issues that come here.”
The visit by the two leaders just came a few days ago after the Chief Justice accused the President of being responsible for the operational crisis in the Judiciary.
Maraga said President Kenyatta refused to appoint the 41 judges that had been recommended by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). According to Maraga, the refusal created a serious shortage of judges in various courts across the country leading to some cases in the court being pushed to 2022.
“It is important to clearly and categorically state that this shortage of judges and the near paralysis of court operations has been caused by the President.
The President has persisted in his refusal despite orders in two cases requiring him to swear in the judges with a time frame of 14 days.” Maraga said in a press address.
Maraga pointed out that the situation has left the Environment and Land Court department with only 31 judges across the country yet as of this year March, the department had a backlog of 16,457 cases to handle.
