THE JUDICIARY BLACK SPOT

The judiciary is moving at a supersonic speed on the super highway of reforms, but has it got an accident at a black spot on its road to the Promised Land? After March 4^th election, the results were announced declaring  Uhuru Kenyatta as president, Raila Odinga filed a petition to The Supreme Court  seeking the court to declare the election invalid,  but The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta. Not everyone was pleased with the ruling since it was received with political reaction. If a person supported Uhuru, of course it was a ceremony for the birth of a new president; on the other hand, if a person supported Raila Odinga, it was a funeral to them since they had to bury their dream of being lead by the son of Jaramogi. The Supreme court was criticized on a number of things such as rejection the 800 page affidavit on court procedure bases, this affidavit contained evidence to support Raila’s case but when the court gave the judgment it stated that Raila had not given sufficient evidence to prove his case. The court was also criticized relied on legal authorities from countries such as Nigeria and Uganda whose democracy record is not upright. It was also stated that the judgment was read in a casual way, on the day of giving the final judgment, since the judges did not read the whole judgment as is normally done in courts. To put a hot nail on the wound, just recently the High Court recently terminated a 20 year old Goldenberg Case where the country lost billions of shillings “thanks” to Judge Joseph Mutava, who released the master-mind of the Goldenberg scandal, Kamlesh Pattni .Judge Joseph Mutava is being investigated by the Judicial Service Commission on his conduct and also his relation with Kamlish Pattni. The Director of Public Prosecution, Keriako Tobiko said they will appeal the case to the Court of Appeal but they are being frustrated by some issues such as; the judgment which cleared  Kamlesh Pattni went missing from the High Court registry and only resurfaced after 18 days and it is believed this is part of a scheme to defeat any avenue for appeal, since an appeal should be filed to the a higher court( The Court of Appeal), 14 days after the day of judgment, in this case the 14 day window of appeal has already lapsed but an appeal can still be possible if Prosecutor will give the judge reasonable reasons for the delay.

In most Courts of Justice, there is always a black spot called “political influence” and this ends up causing the death of justice to many people. For instance, in 1992 and 1997 general elections Kenneth Matiba &  Mwai Kibaki respectively, would not successfully file a presidential election petition against Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi because the court at the time acted as a puppet of the “big fish” of the society and justice was measured with the depth of a person’s pocket. I have a strong belief that Kenya has moved from those miserable years and am bloody sure the “Mutunga’s Courts” is a reformed court and was not influenced politically or bribed on giving its ruling and that is why the judiciary has not got an accident at the black-spot neither has it had a puncture to slow its speed or stop it towards a reformed judiciary. KEEP UP JUDICIARY!!