Let us talk about future role of Judiciary in the face of hostility

As the Judiciary prepares for retirement of Justice J B Ojwang early in the New Year, a missing plank in the discourse on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is the future role of the Kenyan Judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court, which has a central role in the management of electoral disputes. The Judicial Service Commission submitted a detailed memorandum to the BBI task force, whose main thrust was a case for the financial and institutional independence of the Judiciary.

The political violence of 2007 led to a loss of public confidence in the Electoral Commission, and eventually pushed the country towards greater judicialisation of politics by establishing a Supreme Court with the exclusive mandate to resolve presidential electoral disputes.