Judicial independence holds out against an emasculating State

After meeting President Uhuru Kenyatta in a political rally, for which he was criticised, Chief Justice David Maraga welcomed the President to his own tuff last week, on the occasion of the state of the Judiciary address. This is the second time Kenyatta was attending this annual ceremony. The President first attended last year, soon after the recrimination-filled elections season.

After the nullification of the presidential election results in 2017, the relationship between the Executive and the Judiciary rapidly deteriorated, with Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto, who accompanied the President to the Judiciary function last week, leading in what became an astonishingly vicious attack on the Judiciary in general and the person of Maraga specifically.