KENYAN President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday called on the Judiciary to step up fight against corruption in the country as it had left many Kenyans suffering and denied essential services.

“The brokerage of justice has left many Kenyans broken and suffering and their businesses, health and lives destroyed through impunity.’’

Kenyatta said the judiciary is not immune to the temptations of corruption and its officers must guard against criminals out to exploit court processes to escape the consequences of their economic crimes.

“Corruption is continuing its vicious attack on our people and our nation. The Judiciary is not immune to its illicit lures, and its intimidation,” the president added.

He said there are known culprits, who exploit the court processes and judgments to escape from the consequences of their economic crimes against the people of Kenya.

Kenyatta noted a growing feeling based on perceptions that judicial officers are beyond the reach of the law and are using the law to protect individuals from the law, an act he termed as a profound assault on justice.

Brokers of justice, said Kenyatta, have also persistently exploited the judicial system to block and stall government projects worth huge sums of money.

The president said it was unfortunate that a thread of selfish individuals have continued to block government projects with undeclared interests and in the process left many Kenyans suffering and denied essential services.

Chief Justice, David Maraga, agreed with the president that corruption was endemic in the country, including the Judiciary and urged all Kenyans to say no to it.

Maraga, however, has defended the judiciary against claims that it is the weak link in the fight against graft in Kenya.

Maraga said the judiciary had made major strides in the number of convictions from the cases before court.

“Months of acrimonious exchanges and blame games between different state agencies only serve to deepen the already intractable challenges and further hurt the efforts to stop corruption,” he said.

Maraga, who is also the president of the Supreme Court, indicated that there have been 46 convictions and 91 pending corruption cases.

He also said that 148,877 cases out of 170,186 had been resolved between January 2017 and December 21, 2018.

He says that the judiciary is working towards reducing the maximum limit of handling cases from five years to two or three years. (Xinhua/NAN)

– Feb. 28, 2019 @ 18:25 GMT |