Why IG, AG, DCI, DPP, EACC And Half Of Judges Missed Maraga’s Last Official Event

The Inspector General (IG) of police Hillary Mutyambai, Attorney General (AG) Kihara Kariuki, Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) George Kinoti and Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) chairman Eliud Wabukala were conspicuously missing from retired Chief Justice David Maraga’s last event.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji was also missing in the event.

As a sign of co-operation and goodwill, it is expected that the heads of the aforementioned state agencies should have either attended the event or sent representatives.

Maraga handed over the instruments of power on Monday to Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu on Monday, January 11, 2021 bringing to an end his tumultuous reign that has seen him in bitter exchange with the government.

Kahawa Tungu understands that Maraga has not been in good terms with AG Kariuki, with those in the know saying that AG Kariuki influenced half of the judges to miss the event.

“AG doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Maraga and incited half of the judges not to attend,” says our source.

This writer is also informed that DPP Haji was away with his dad who is sick.

The hostility between the Executive arm of the government and Maraga started back in 2017 when the Supreme Court nullified the Presidential election over widespread fraud. Later, President Uhuru Kenyatta promised to “revisit”.

Since then, the budget for Judiciary has been reduced severally, and even President Kenyatta refused to appoint 41 judges to the Judiciary.

The grudge escalated in September 2020, when Maraga issued an advisory to President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve Parliament over its failure to enact legislation required to implement the two-thirds gender rule.

The advisory followed six petitions filed by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), Margaret Toili, Fredrick Gichanga Mbugua’h, Stephen Owako, John Wangai, Aoko Bernard and David Sudi.

However, it sparked enmity afresh, this time with AG Kariuki, who felt like Maraga was up to no good.



AG Kariuki also filed a case opposing the CJ’s advisory arguing that if parliament is dissolved then that may give the president another term.

The Judiciary also in July 2020 ruled that the DCI has no powers to institute any criminal charges unless approved by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). This could have sparked fury with Kinoti, who missed the event.

IG Mutyambai was on the other hand running his routine Twitter session, where he answers various questions to Kenyans.

While Maraga’s event was ongoing, the EACC conducted a parallel event for training of Integrity Assurance Officers from the Office of the Attorney General (Kariuki) and Department of Justice.

The two offices, EACC and AG, could have colluded to hold the training to look busy, and made a public post as an excuse for missing Maraga’s event.
 
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