NYAMIRA, Kenya Dec 8 – Chief Justice David Kenani Maraga will officially retire on Friday.
Maraga said he is happy with his tenure having taken over the office in October 2016 when he took over from Willy Mutunga. He is the country’s 14th Chief Justice.
“Friday will be my last day in office,” he said when he presided over the launch of Manga Law Courts on Monday, “I will be proceeding on my terminal leave.”
Manga court that was launched by the CJ is one of the oldest courts in the country, having been used by colonialists in pre-independence Kenya.
Maraga’s retirement paves way for the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to start the recruitment of his successor.
Maraga has had rough days in his tenure, and leaves when his relations with the Executive are strained.
Two months ago, Maraga advised President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve Parliament for failing to enact laws on the elusive two-thirds gender rule.
That advice is the subject of a court case that is pending.
He has also repeatedly accused the Executive of under-funding the Judiciary, a call he repeated on Monday when he asked legislators to consider increasing funding to the Judiciary to ease service delivery to citizens.
“I want to challenge our legislators to increase funding to the Judiciary to even Sh10 billion a year for construction and give us only 10 years and see courts all over the country,” he said, “I have left office with a lot of Court requests which I could not manage due to constrained budget. That’s my only plea to you.”
This year alone, the Judiciary was able to gazette and build 21 courts across the country, according to statistics from his office.
Maraga added that his road to retirement had been treacherous and trying after the Supreme court nullified the 2017 presidential election and ordered a repeat that angered President Kenyatta who declared “we shall revisit.”
He asked his successor to be brave and work for the truth because “the job is not easy.”
“All this far is because of the people’s prayers and I ask Kenyans to pray for the next CJ as this job needs God to guide you through. I thank all who prayed for me to this end”, added Maraga.
Kitutu Masaba Member of Parliament Shadrack Mose acknowledged the “suffocation” of the Judiciary with resources but vowed to mobilize his colleagues to ensure it gets its rightful share for development and service delivery.
