Ethnicity, gender division rife at Judiciary, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga says

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga who has said the judiciary is still grappling with ethnicity and gender divisions. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • Mutunga admitted that not everyone has supported reforms in the judiciary
  • Cultural transformation in judiciary is critical

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has said the Judiciary is still grappling with ethnic and gender divisions despite making several steps to reform its operations.

Dr Mutunga on Monday evening said the judiciary continues to experience “resistance” and “volcanic eruptions” from quarters that oppose rapid reforms in the system.

“The judiciary is still plagued by ethnic, racial, gender, generational, religious, nepotistic and regional divisions just reflecting our society,” he said at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi

Although the nascent judiciary which was reborn from the Constitution passed in 2010 has had to change a few things and regain public confidence, Dr Mutunga admitted that not everyone has supported reforms.

He said when continuous training of judges was started last year at the Judicial Training Institute (JTI), some judges he did not name resisted because they considered the trainers as juniors.

The Chief Justice also referred indirectly to the disciplinary procedures against some of his juniors for the past two years he has been in office. His deputy Nancy Baraza was forced to resign after an altercation with a security guard.

Last month, disciplinary action against Chief Registrar Gladys Shollei was halted after she went to court complaining she had not been informed of the wrongs she had done. She later withdrew the case after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) agreed to resolve the matter out of court.

RESISTANCE

“Of course there is resistance to that transformation and volcanic eruptions keep on happening. We have one that we are dealing with now and I am sure there will be many others. But I think the institution has to transform so that it can be a leader in the transformation of this society.”

“What JTI has started doing, which is critical, is to start cultural transformation which confronts head-on this judiciary, a call for significant mental shifts while focusing on the values of the constitution,” he said.

Dr Mutunga was speaking at the launch of a book: Ethnicity, Nationhood and Pluralism: Kenyan Perspectives, which is a collection of essays by academics on how Kenya political scenes change and how tribes affect them. The book has been edited by Kenyan constitutional law scholars Prof Yash Pal Ghai and his wife Jill Ghai.

The book’s publication is a project by the Global Centre for Pluralism which is an initiative of the Aga Khan and was published by the Katiba Institute in Nairobi.