Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu is calling on the Judicial Service Commission to pick a woman to succeed David Maraga as Chief Justice.
The CJ chairs the JSC and is the president of the Supreme Court. Ngilu said the time is ripe for Kenya to have a female head of the Supreme Court
In a statement to newsrooms, Ngilu said one of the women applicants appearing before the JSC for the ongoing interviews should be picked for the job.
“There could never be a better moment to have the first woman Chief Justice in this country than right now,” Ngilu said.
Ten candidates are being interviewed of whom three are women. They include Prof. Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Lady Justice Marth Koome and Alice Jepkoech Yano.
Ngilu said since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2020, the trend has been women deputising men who take up the Chief Justice position.
“It’s now time to have a woman leading the judicial arm of government,” the governor said.
Ngilu said as the country heads towards transitional elections next year, excluding women from the high table conversations to shape the future of the country should be avoided.
She regretted that with 52 per cent of the population of Kenya being women, Kenya’s development marks-times because it is largely 48 per cent of the population that makes all the important decisions.
The governor said at times such decisions by a minority male population are convoluted and not much of being people-driven.
She likened the situation to trying to walk on one leg.
As she advocated the need for women in leadership, Ngilu quoted South Africa’s celebrated cleric Desmond Tutu thus; if we are going to see real development in the world then our best investment is in women.
“Having women at the high table must not be an afterthought, a favour or an act of magnanimity and tokenism. It must be an active ingredient in crafting the development framework of this nation,” she said.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
