Hope as Uhuru, CJ Maraga ‘reach truce’ – VIDEO
President Uhuru Kenyatta was on Thursday morning extended an olive branch to Chief Justice David Maraga at the Supreme Court during the official release of the State of the Judiciary Report.
Mr Kenyatta said that he wished his discussions and meetings with Justice Maraga would be more regular so that they could strengthen their work relationship.
“There is no one bigger or smaller than the other we are all equal, we have been given a mandate by the people of Kenya we just need to respect one another. Bwana CJ, I look forward in this New Year to be meeting with you on a very regular basis and I look forward to us doing even better to meet the expectations of the great people of this republic,” said Mr Kenyatta.
The Nation reports that a long meeting between President Kenyatta and Justice Maraga averted an exchange of words between the two during the launch of the report.
The president also reminded the CJ to expedite cases relating to tax collection and also support tax reviews proposed by the government.
INJUNCTION
“Yes you need more money but CJ your courts are the same ones when we propose certain tax measures you are the first ones to say injunction sasa pesa itatoka wapi. Wewe umefunga halafu unasema unataka pesa,” challenged the head of state.
“On the question of Judicial funding my administration will continue to do its best within resources available to support the Judiciary. But we must accept we all want to fly first class lakini itachukuwa mdaa. Pesa ni hiyo tuu, hakuna ingine haizalishwi kwa miti. We must now think out of the box on how we are going to operate within the resources that we have,” explained President Kenyatta.
He added: “Ingine kalikali tumesema tuwachane tuko na Amani leo, but I believe that we have not cut any operational areas or any development budget that has not yet started. Because the areas we focused our cuts on I do not believe will grind to a halt the wheels of justice. One of the circulars that applies to all of us for example is to say that we do not have to buy you three newspapers every day. Jameni si ununue gazeti yako ukitoka nyumbani, why do you have to find it on your desk hata mimi siku hizi na nunua yangu.”
Mr Maraga and the Presdient had not being seeing eye to eye after the former accused the government of not respecting the Judiciary.
The CJ had refused to attend State functions. The sour relationship between the two stemmed from a decision the Supreme Court made to cancel the outcome of the 2017 presidential election, with president Kenyatta referring to the courts as being headed by (mikora) thugs. He then made the infamous threat: “We shall revisit.”