‘You almost burnt Kenya,’ Jubilee tells CJ Maraga in protest letter

Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju has written a protest letter to Chief Justice David Maraga over what he terms as “bias, double standards, impunity and poor leadership” on the part of the Judiciary.

In a hard-hitting open letter and without mincing his words, Tuju accuses Justice Maraga of “almost burning” the country last year.

“My Lord, with all due respect, may I state the following, not to provoke you but to submit that no powers can be absolute… Irresponsible actions from the Judiciary, Executive or Parliament can burn this country – and with due respect you almost succeeded in burning the country after August 8th Elections,” says Tuju.

Tuju goes ahead to cite eight instances where he claims the Judiciary was biased instead of being impartial, just and fair.

The first case Tuju highlights is the perceived failure by the Judiciary to condemn NASA’s boycott of the October 26, 2017 repeat presidential election yet the poll was an order issued by the court.

Tuju further says that when NASA publicly declared there would be no election on October 26, 2017 and Jubilee went to court seeking a clarification on the fate of the repeat poll, the Supreme Court failed to urgently address the matter.

“The Supreme Court saw nothing urgent about this petition to the court and gave a hearing date of 27th October 2017. A post de facto date. This was like a naughty wink to NASA to continue with their contempt of the Supreme Court,”  said Tuju.

According to Tuju, it was open bias for the Supreme Court to give priority to the case where two petitioners wanted to stop the October 26 election, with the Chief Justice directing that the matter be heard the next day which had been gazetted as a public holiday.

“To any rational observer, it is the kind of fast tracking that you can only get in this country when “you know people,” adds Tuju. “The case collapsed after some of your Supreme Court judges failed to turn up and you had to eat humble pie”.

He also notes that the opposition has continued to disregard the court ruling that upheld Kenyatta’s win on October 26, but the Supreme Court has failed to act even after NASA went ahead to hold a mock swearing-in ceremony.

“To our consternation, you were quoted by the local media saying that you had no powers to stop your judges from conducting the swearing in of the people’s president… I sincerely hoped that you were misquoted otherwise this would have been another wink to NASA to proceed with their nonsense,” says Tuju.

The Jubilee party boss further says the Court declined to urgently hear a case filed by the Attorney General to stop the January 30th swearing-in of Odinga. He faults the court for setting the hearing for mid February, days after the controversial event.

Tuju also states that the Judiciary has remained silent on the issue of the People’s Assemblies yet a Kitui court suspended the formation of the assemblies.

He also points the instance where a court dismissed with costs, a case seeking to restrain Siaya Governor Cornell Rasanga from visiting violence on IEBC officials.

Lastly, Tuju faults the court for “granting many Okiya Omtata prayers exparte and with utmost urgency and anticipatory bond to NASA leadership” after the swearing-in.

Tuju’s letter comes a week after Justice Maraga accused the Executive and the police of interfering with the independence of the Judiciary following the recent move to disregard court orders.