State House discussions should have been done in parliament: MP Otiende Amollo

Rarieda Member of Parliament Otiende Amollo has dismissed Monday’s meeting by President William Ruto, Chief Justice Martha Koome as unfortunate, unnecessary and ill-timed.

Ruto convened the leadership of the three arms of government for a meeting at State House, Nairobi resolve the tiff between the judiciary and executive. 

It followed Ruto’s recent public attacks against the Koome-led judicial arm, accusing it of sabotaging his government’s agenda after court orders halting several projects that the Kenya Kwanza government intends to implement.

He even vowed to disregard court orders he said are motivated by ‘judicial impunity’.

According to Amollo, however, it did not need President Ruto’s involvement for the changes announced after the meeting to be made.

Following the meeting, the State House announced that the executive and legislature pledged to support the judiciary's request for additional budgetary allocation, which includes provisions for the recruitment of 25 judges for the High Court and 11 judges for the Court of Appeal, as well as resources to complete the vehicle leasing programme to meet the judiciary's transportation needs.

But the Rarieda MP says increasing the number of judges in the country’s top courts as well as budget allocation is done through parliament.

“All those things listed are things that should have been done by parliament. Increasing the number of judges requires an amendment of the law. I am in the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and we recently did that, you don’t need to go to the president to do that,” Amollo said on Tuesday in an interview with KTN News.

“Increasing the allocation to the judiciary is done by parliament, not the executive and what the judiciary wants to do with the allocation is up to them.”

MP termed the meeting “interfering with the functioning and the independence of the judiciary", saying he hoped CJ Koome and her deputy Philomena Mwilu, who was also in attendance, would boycott it. 

“There is no such thing as interdependence in the arms of government. Each of them plays a distinct role and oversight is very clear.”

Monday’s meeting which was also attended by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula, Attorney General Justin Muturi and CoG chairperson Anne Waiguru, aimed to develop anti-corruption strategies, strengthen accountability, and streamline service delivery for Kenyan citizens, State House spokesperson Hussein Mohamed said.

He said each arm of government pledged to step up efforts to improve service delivery, combat corruption, and uphold justice.

Each branch of government committed to presenting their proposals to a National Council of the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) forum chaired by Koome in 30 days.

State House said Ruto, Wetanu, and Koome reaffirmed their commitment to upholding the rule of law, institutional independence, and unwavering respect for court decisions.