Kimunya: CJ Maraga not acting in good faith on advisory, wants to settle score with Parliament.

Majority Leader of the National Assembly Hon. Amos Kimunya has faulted CJ Maraga over his decision to issue an advisory to President Kenyatta seeking the dissolution of Parliament for failing to implement the two-thirds gender rule as required by Article 261(7) of the Constitution. The Kipipiri MP said that the Chief Justice was acting out of self-preservation following pressure from the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee over his transition plan from office following the near elapse of his tenure as the Chief Justice.

”On 14th September 2020, the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee invited the Chief Justice to appear before it. Among issues that they discussed was his transition from office…the Committee was very hard on him. They asked him why he had not taken leave to allow the JSC to move in and start getting a replacement for the powerful position of Chief Justice.”

He was speaking when he appeared on K24 TV’s Punchline show alongside Mbita MP Hon. Millie Odhiambo and NGEC Commissioner Hon. Priscilla Nyokabi. He explained that the Chief Justice had been irked by the insistence of the Committee that he explains how he intends to transition from office, to the point of issuing the controversial advisory to the President just 7 days after he appeared before the it.

”It raises a fundamental issue of how we can protect Parliament Committees from doing their oversight role, so that if the Chief Justice appears before them and is asked some hard questions, he can be stopped from opting to dissolve the entire Parliament…” intimated the former Cabinet minister.

”Similarly, should we expect that when, for instance, the DCI, EACC, or the Interior CS is called before a Committee of Parliament, members of the said Committee will start getting arrested? ” lamented Kimunya, ”I have a responsibility to protect the Committees so that they can do their oversight role.”