Page 3 - THE RHINO Issue 002

THE MARAGA CHARGE SHEET
Uhuru will have the last laugh
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CJ Maraga appears to have no knowledge of this spectrum; meaning he is not ideologically an- chored and thus, prone to capture by rouge ac- tors and ideas in society. For a local magistrate, possessing an ideology is a luxury, but for a Chief Justice, it is a necessity. In other-words, the rea- son we have experienced so much turbulence is because Maraga, intellectually, is no more than a local magistrate.
CJ Maraga appears to have no knowledge of this spectrum; meaning he is not ideological- ly anchored and thus, prone to capture by rouge actors and ideas in society.
Charge Number 3, Maraga’s legal method is inco- herent. History has proven him a process oriented as opposed to an outcome-oriented CJ. Something that is virtually unheard of in Supreme Courts across the world. Typically, the higher up you rise in the judiciary, the more complex issues become. And so, the literal approach to law that’s applied in the lower courts does not suffice when tack- ling issues in the highest court of the land. For example, Maraga’s judgement for nullifying the August 8 th election was full of contradictions. It concluded that “the irregularities and illegalities in the Presidential election... were substantial and significant, that they affected the integrity of the election, the results notwithstanding.” Yet the judgement dismissed every allegation of illegal- ity made by the opposition coalition, NASA. What is more, although Maraga found numerous irregu- larities, he did not issue a single order to the DPP asking him to investigate the officers who were responsible for deviating from the law. In fact, the word prosecute appeared only two times in the majority judgment. One cannot help but conclude that the election was nullified on account of a misapplication of legal method.
Maraga will probably go down on record as the most nihilistic public servant Kenya has ever had.
OCTOBER ‘04
BY JONATHAN MAINA
OUR COLUMNIST
Jonathan is a research fellow at The Fort Hall School of Government and a PhD Candidate in Political Economy at SMC University.
Maraga has never been fit for the role of Chief Justice. On the 21 st of September, he initiated an advisory calling for the dissolution of parlia- ment; a decision that has the potential to thrust the country into a constitutional crisis. The ques- tion that begs is: is he a political greenhorn, or he is executing a political scheme? We can now confirm that he is executing Part B of a scheme he began in September 2017, when he nullified the Presidential election of August 8 th .
Here is the three-point Maraga Charge Sheet.
Charge number 1: At heart, Maraga is a coup-maker. On the 25 th of October 2017, Maraga summoned the Supreme Court. He convened the court to decide whether or not the country was ready to hold an election the following day. But due to insufficient quorum the sitting never happened. Back then, we at the 5 th Estate asked several ques- tions: why was the Njonjo Mue petition brought before Maraga only days before the election of the 26 th ? And why did the Chief Justice, certify it urgent? Why was it allowed audience at the eleventh hour; on the eve of the election? We suspected a sinister motive. The most probable reason was that he wanted to cancel the election of the 26 th altogether. This would have precipitated a constitutional crisis in which he would have created the justification to impose himself as Acting President. Remember, this narrative had already been intro- duced to public discourse through the Okiya Omtatah petition, which sought to set up a caretaker government headed by Maraga “due to his professional and personal prestige and separation from party dy- namics”.
Charge number 2: Maraga is ideologically bankrupt. The ideological spectrum in politics consists of three broad categories. Liberals, mod- erates and conservatives. Liberals believe that society should be or- ganized and regulated in a way that maximizes the civil liberties and freedoms of the individual. Moderates accept the limitation of indivi ual rights for the sake of the common good. Conservatives are pri- marily concerned with preserving the customs and traditions of so- ciety and the State. They are skeptical of changes that are new and unproven in practice. Immediate former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga was unapologetically liberal. Former Chief Justice Evans Gicheru was die-hard conservative.
ISSUE N. 002