EX-Chief Justice David Maraga and President Uhuru Kenyatta |
Retired Chief Justice David Maraga wants President Uhuru Kenyatta impeached citing failure in his obligation to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Ex-CJ Maraga accused President Kenyatta of not swearing in the 41 judges approved by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) as required by the law, even after three court orders.
“That is a Constitutional duty put on the president. The President says he can’t appoint because there are issues; issues which he does not want to reveal. Three court orders are directing the president and even giving him a time frame, and he has not appointed.
“As far as I am concerned that is a violation of his constitutional duty. In fact, if it was in other countries, the president would be impeached because he swore to uphold and defend the constitution.
“If you have failed on a constitutional duty which is placed upon you, the recourse for the president would be impeachment. But that does not happen in jurisdictions like ours and that is why it has persisted up to now.
“When you apply to be appointed as a judge there is background work that we do. We write to all government agencies including NIS, DCI, DPP, AG, KRA and even the civil society and ask them for any cause why a particular person should not be appointed if they pass the interview.
“In the case of the 41 judges, in the course of the interview, we found we had not received any communication from the NIS. I took it up and they said they had issues with some candidates but could not give details,” the former CJ David Maraga said.
The former Chief Justice states that no one is above the law and that the President should be accountable since he has violated the Constitution which he swore to defend and uphold.
“The Kenyans have representatives in Parliament. I believe there is a provision that Parliament could use to impeach the President so that everybody is held accountable. I hear people out here saying the President cannot be sued. The President is sworn. The legitimacy of the president’s powers is from the Constitution, which he should uphold and defend. If he fails to defend the Constitution as required, some action has to be taken against him and for me that is impeachment,” concluded Maraga.