By Shadrack Muyesu
Someone in Government must be horribly exasperated at the recent turn of events at the Supreme Court. And why shouldn’t they be?
When X, a lobbyist, approached one of the top boys at the Court, the script ought to have been very simple: “ensure we have numbers at both the Supreme Court and the Judicial Service Commission. We shall surely need them.” It must have been easy to charm his victim, who is a known right leaning. But just to sweeten the broth, my guess is that he dangled a “we’ll front you for the next CJ” throughout the negotiation. Of course it wasn’t true, yet if the gusto with which he executed his mission is anything to go by, the good Justice must have swallowed this lie line hook and sinker.
A similar gospel seems to have been preached to Njoki Ndung’u SCJ. As to what exactly X promised her, remains uncertain. Whether it’s a slot at the JSC or better yet, the title “Madam Deputy Chief Justice” in this new world of affirmative action we may never know.
All I know is that the speed at which she “blessed” Kalpana Rawal (then DCJ) with a contentious injunction (at the advice of Justice Ojwang) and the vehemence with which she defended her actions (with the stellar support of the same Justice Ojwang, of course) betrays a motivation far beyond the immaculate conception of law or even friendship as it has been whispered in some circles.
At the centre of the politics were Tunoi SCJ and Rawal DCJ.
Fairly young in the field, I went through law school without encountering a single decent Rawal or Tunoi jurisprudence. I never mentioned my disaffection to anyone though, since I associated it with a lack of initiative on my part, rather than the incompetence of the judges. It’s only when a senior in the field confirmed their right leaning preferences that I realised I was right after all. According to him, Rawal’s appointment was actually due to her general standing than it was her seniority in the field.
An invaluable asset to the status quo, they had to be protected, and if anything, their numbers shored up for the sake of a rainy day, hence X, hence the discarded amendment to the JSC Act, hence the Tunoi Tribunal that was, in all fairness designed to fail, hence the Government Printer’s refusal to gazette their exit.…
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