Judiciary faces career gridlock likely to drain the best brains

Judiciary Service Commission bosses address the media at the Supreme Court in Nairobi last week. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

“We are deeply tribal, even in this commission,” Justice William Ouko pulled the pin from the grenade and hurled it into the tent where the Judicial Service Commission was interviewing judges for the Supreme Court.

He got the job, but the JSC, one of 14 independent constitutional commissions, has come into sharp focus: Despite putting on an impressive show of transparency and accountability since it was reconstituted in 2010 to promote judicial independence and accountability, the commission is weighed down by perceptions of ethnic balance.