•“This house approves the nomination of Koome for appointment for the CJ position,” the team said.
•Speaker Justin Muturi made the call for the sitting in a Gazette notice on Monday.
Image: FILE
The National Assembly has approved the appointment of Justice Martha Koome as Chief Justice.
Members of the National Assembly unanimously on Wednesday voted to approve the report of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee that recommended her approval to succeed retired CJ David Maraga.
The Speaker is expected to communicate to the President the decision for formal appointment.
During the debate, Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris said Kenya should not shy away from embracing Justice Koome.
"... let us not shy away from embracing her as a woman and saying that today we're proud that we have her as a nominee for Chief Justice," she said.
"Not just for her but for the many women in this country, the girl child and the women that aspire to be leaders."
Passaris said what she liked about Martha Koome is the fact that she's humble, has integrity, is grounded and is compassionate.
Igembe North MP Maoka Maore said the country is celebrating the breaking of the glass ceiling by a woman.
"...the Meru community as well, we are being taught a lesson that since independence there's no time the Merus have gone to a ballot box in a general election and actually elected a woman," he said.
"This would be an eye-opener in the sense that when the Justice Koome showed for the nomination at the JSC, nobody saw a woman."
He said that what people saw was a serious judge whose temperament when you looked at her, you couldn't be able to discern anything you would describe as feminine.
"Anything that you would belittle because she was a woman. But you saw very firm answers from her," he added.
Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang said the question of independence of judiciary is a bothersome issue.
"Nobody undermines the independence. Just like the legislature is independent. But if we're not careful, this issue called independence of Judiciary could be a big elephant in the House," he said.
"But the Chief Justice I think now knows that the question of independence of Judiciary, without assaulting on it, but there must be a clear balance. Because we live in this country all of us."
Kajwang said one can choose to be independent.
"I want to talk about gender. The Chief Justice very well knows that the office of the Chief Justice as well as the office of the Deputy Chief Justice are both of one gender," he said.
"They should know that with that in mind, for the time that they will be in that office, there's another gender that is watching them and how they're going to exercise themselves."
He said that the other gender would want to be comfortable.
"Yes there's the other gender that is watching. And we would want to be comfortable, for the first time power is in the hands of two people. We want to see how they're going to exercise this power where both genders are concerned," he said.
The Justice and Legal Affairs committee had approved the nomination of Martha Koome for appointment as CJ of Kenya
“This house approves the nomination of Koome for appointment for the CJ position,” the team said.
Speaker Justin Muturi made the call for the sitting in a Gazette notice on Monday.
The lawmakers held a session in the morning and another in the afternoon.