I
will leave the High Court ruling regarding the vetting of judges and
magistrates, for now, in the capable hands of Eric Ng'eno, Prof Makau
Mutua and Gitau Warigi, my eminent seniors. I will, instead, weigh in on
the blatant money-grab perpetrated by the Judiciary under the
leadership of Dr Willy Mutunga, the Chief Justice and Gladys Boss
Shollei, the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary. It is now becoming
apparent that the Judiciary is just as avaricious and status-obsessed as
out National Assembly. They must be seen to be judges and this is
achieved only by amassing the accoutrements of power: fancy cars and
even fancier homes. Ms Shollei has been having a back-and-forth letter
war with The Treasury regarding the little thing of buying the Chief
Justice a "ceremonial" Mercedes-Benz, the gadget-laden (fully-loaded to
you), S350 model. At a wallet-bashing 14 million shillings, this is not
your ordinary runabout and it is meant to stack up favourably with the
limousines we have acquired for the President, the Vice-President, the
Prime Minister and the Speaker of the National Assembly.
As reported, the Court of Appeal judges were set to receive 130,000 shillings and High Court judges were set to get 120,000 shillings as transport allowances. If they had all settled for the rather swanky VW Passats that the rest of the government is purchasing, that would seem to be sum sufficient to operate the vehicles with a tidy sum left over for other things. Ms Shollei though, is not impressed. That sum, it seems, is 150,000 shillings lower than what other constitutional office holders get. Her argument is not that the sum is not enough; her argument is that it does not stack up with the same amount given to others. This is the kind of argument that a Standard Three pupil will make to justify some outrageous act. Someone should point this out to the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary.
Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga have taken the perks of their respective positions to ridiculous heights. In a nation that can barely afford to educate its children or keep them from being mown down by preventable childhood diseases, it is immoral - yes, immoral - for our judicial officers, the one institution that is supposed to level the playing field between the rulers and the ruled, to raid the national treasury to make what is a very comfortable life even more so. When we cannot find the money to pay for dialysis machines n our national hospitals, or treat certain cancers because we have spent our national treasure in making the lives of the high-and-mighty more comfortable, none should be surprised when we take out our frustrations on the rulers with acts of gross violence.
I have warned that the 2013 general election will be a referendum on the privileges enjoyed by our rulers and if we even have an inkling that they are set to screw us over once more, like they did in 2007 and 1997, we will set this nation on fire. This time round, we will not go after our equally poor and desperate neighbours; if you live in Muthaiga, New Muthaiga, Runda or any of a number of leafy suburbs or golf gated communities, you had better pack your bags and retire to the comfort of your villas in the south of France for we will set your homes on fire. Dr Mutunga deceived us that the Judiciary would be different from the politicians we have come to loath. In 2013 if this nation burns, we will not spare his fancy new Mercedes-Benz or his 200 million shilling mansion. Neither will his judges of the Court of Appeal or the High Court. We will raze it all to the ground.
As reported, the Court of Appeal judges were set to receive 130,000 shillings and High Court judges were set to get 120,000 shillings as transport allowances. If they had all settled for the rather swanky VW Passats that the rest of the government is purchasing, that would seem to be sum sufficient to operate the vehicles with a tidy sum left over for other things. Ms Shollei though, is not impressed. That sum, it seems, is 150,000 shillings lower than what other constitutional office holders get. Her argument is not that the sum is not enough; her argument is that it does not stack up with the same amount given to others. This is the kind of argument that a Standard Three pupil will make to justify some outrageous act. Someone should point this out to the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary.
Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga have taken the perks of their respective positions to ridiculous heights. In a nation that can barely afford to educate its children or keep them from being mown down by preventable childhood diseases, it is immoral - yes, immoral - for our judicial officers, the one institution that is supposed to level the playing field between the rulers and the ruled, to raid the national treasury to make what is a very comfortable life even more so. When we cannot find the money to pay for dialysis machines n our national hospitals, or treat certain cancers because we have spent our national treasure in making the lives of the high-and-mighty more comfortable, none should be surprised when we take out our frustrations on the rulers with acts of gross violence.
I have warned that the 2013 general election will be a referendum on the privileges enjoyed by our rulers and if we even have an inkling that they are set to screw us over once more, like they did in 2007 and 1997, we will set this nation on fire. This time round, we will not go after our equally poor and desperate neighbours; if you live in Muthaiga, New Muthaiga, Runda or any of a number of leafy suburbs or golf gated communities, you had better pack your bags and retire to the comfort of your villas in the south of France for we will set your homes on fire. Dr Mutunga deceived us that the Judiciary would be different from the politicians we have come to loath. In 2013 if this nation burns, we will not spare his fancy new Mercedes-Benz or his 200 million shilling mansion. Neither will his judges of the Court of Appeal or the High Court. We will raze it all to the ground.
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