Uhuru's 'revisit' comment was definitely implemented - Maraga

 

Retired CJ David Maraga says the President actualised his threat to 'revisit' the Judiciary.

"When the president made that statement, I thought it was just something said in the spur of a moment. But subsequently, when you see some things you say wait a minute, this would ordinarily not be done," Maraga said during an exit interview with Citizen TV on Thursday night.

Maraga retired from his position at the helm of the Judiciary on Tuesday.

On the 'revisit' comment, Maraga cited drastic budget cuts for the Judiciary as one of the indications of the infamous remark by President Uhuru Kenyatta coming to play.

"The development vote (a name for the Judiciary budget) was normally about Sh1-2 billion per year, however, after that we were given Sh50 million," Maraga said.

He further said there was a cold reception from the president that made it obvious there was something amiss.

Uhuru made the 'revisit' statement after the Supreme Court overturned the results of the 2017 General Election.

   "We shall revisit this thing. We clearly have a problem...Who even elected you?  We have a problem and we must fix it," he said with anger written all over his face.

Since then, the relationship between the President and the Judiciary has been thorny and frosty.

The two have had on and off turf wars, with Chief Justice David Maraga accusing the Executive of interfering with the independence of the Judiciary.

Maraga accused the Executive of being behind a plot to undermine the administration of justice by denying the Judiciary funds.

But in response, the President asked Maraga to “think out of the box” on its use of resources.