Maraga vs Uhuru: 5 Battles That Gave President Headaches

The relationship between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Chief Justice has been riddled with public acts of discord.The two have openly voiced the discontent with each other’s handling of matters involving the Executive and the Judiciary. Here are the instances the President and the CJ have been at loggerheads.1. Nullification of the 2017 Presidential election President Uhuru Kenyatta during a virtual meeting of the African Union Bureau on August 20, 2020.Twitter In September 2017, Chief Justice Maraga led the Supreme Court in the historic ruling which nullified Uhuru’s election citing irregularities and illegalities.Not long after the ruling, Uhuru stated at a public function that they would ‘revisit’ the Judiciary, words that were widely perceived as a threat to Maraga and the courts.What followed after the ruling was a push and pull between the two arms of government with Maraga calling out the Executive over the disregard of court orders and budget cuts to the Judiciary.2. Budgetary cutsIn September 2019, the Treasury slashed the Judiciary budget by over Ksh3 billion citing revenue shortage and need to raise funds for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda.CJ Maraga in his response argued 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.President Uhuru would months later maintain that the proposed budget cuts would not grind the wheels of justice to a halt.He further criticised the CJ for asking for more money arguing that his courts were curtailing his efforts to raise more money.3. CJ Maraga Threats to Boycott State Events In 2019, Chief Justice David Maraga threatened to boycott key state events over what he terms as lack of respect for his office.During an address on November 4, 2019, Maraga stated, “Unless I am treated with dignity due to my office, I will choose which of State functions to attend.”Maraga revealed that during the Mashujaa Day celebrations in Mombasa, he was left to walk to the dais through a sidewalk and that the Master of Ceremony did not acknowledge his arrival yet the same was done for other senior State officers.4. Appointment of Judges In June 2019, CJ Maraga went public with his attack on the Executive accusing him of a litany of things among them failure to appoint 41 judges.Maraga said Uhuru’s refusal to swear in the judges had contributed to the backlog of cases currently being experienced in the Judiciary.”You know I have respect for you as our President. You also know that I have unsuccessfully sought an appointment with you to sort out these issues but it has been futile leaving me with no option but to make this public,” he stated. Chief Justice David Maraga during a press conference at the Supreme Court on November 4, 2019.Facebook The president through the Attorney General Paul Kihara, fired back at the CJ accusing him of seeking public sympathy to hide what he described as his failures and mismanagement of the Judiciary.“The public attacks against the President have now taken a personal slant and it remains unclear why the CJ is attacking the Head of State, which does not bode for our system of governance and constitutional democracy,” Kihara stated.5. Dissolution of ParliamentChief Justice David Maraga on September 21, 2020, put the President on the spot by writing to him asking for the dissolution of Parliament for failing to enforce the two-thirds gender rule.According to the Constitution of Kenya 2010 Article 261(7), “if Parliament fails to enact legislation in accordance with an order under clause (6) (b), the Chief Justice shall advise the President to dissolve Parliament and the President shall dissolve Parliament.”Neither the CJ nor the President has discretion in the matter. With the president yet to respond to the letter, it remains to be seen what the fate of the 12th Parliament will be.  A session in progress at Parliament Buildings in June 2020.Daily Nation