Nairobi - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta
said on Saturday the country has "a problem" with its judiciary
that must be fixed.
He was speaking a day after the Supreme Court annulled his
election win last month and ordered a new poll within 60 days.
"We shall revisit this thing. We clearly have a problem," he
said, referring to the judiciary.
"Who even elected you? Were you? We have a problem and we
must fix it," he said, speaking on live television at the State
House in Nairobi after he met with governors and other elected
officials from his Jubilee party.
Kenyatta, however, also repeated his message from Friday
that he would respect the court's ruling.
The decision to annul the election was an unprecedented
move in Africa where governments often hold sway over judges --
and the first time on the continent that a court ruled against
the electoral victory of an incumbent.
The president's latest comments mark the second time since
Friday's ruling that he has spoken critically about the
judiciary in public. On Friday during an impromptu rally in
Nairobi, he accused the court of ignoring the will of the people
and dismissed the chief justice's colleagues as "wakora", or
crooks.
The president's public appearances since the ruling suggest
he intends to campaign rigorously ahead of the re-run of the
Aug.8 poll.
He said via Twitter on Saturday: "For now let us meet at the
ballot."
Attention now turns back to the election board. The court
ruled that it had "failed, neglected or refused to conduct the
presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates
of the constitution".
Raila Odinga, the veteran opposition leader whose coalition
brought the petition against the election board to the Supreme
Court, said on Friday that some officials from the commission
should face criminal prosecution.
The chairman of the election board said there would be
personnel changes, but it was not clear if that would be enough
for the opposition. Sweeping out the whole board would
complicate efforts to hold a new poll within two months.
Last month's election -- which included the presidential
poll in addition to races at other levels of government -- was
one of the most expensive ever held in Africa. Ahead of the vote
Kenya's treasury said preparation and execution of polling would
cost the equivalent of around $480 million.
Analysts saw the president's latest comments on the
judiciary as a worrisome development.
"It's extremely unfortunate that Kenyatta seems to be
issuing veiled threats at the judiciary," said Murithi Mutiga, a
Nairobi-based senior Africa analyst at the International Crisis
Group.
"This was a tremendous moment for Kenyan democracy, where
the court upheld the rule of law. Politicians should be careful
not to incite the public against the judiciary."
On Friday, Chief Justice David Maraga said the Supreme
Court's verdict was backed by four of the six judges and
declared Kenyatta's victory "invalid, null and void".
Details of the ruling will be released within 21 days.
Prior to last month's election Maraga spoke out to emphasise
the judiciary’s independence.
In a statement he read out on behalf of the Judicial Service
Commission less than a week before the election, he listed
instances in which politicians -- from the ruling party and the
opposition -- had tried to intervene with the judiciary’s work.
“The emerging culture of public lynching of judges and
judicial officers by the political class is a vile affront to
the rule of law and must be fiercely resisted,” the statement
read. “We wish to state that ... the judiciary will not cower to
these intimidating tactics.”
Kenya's judiciary went through sweeping changes in a bid to
restore confidence in the legal system after the bloodshed
following the 2007 election.