• Raila said the Executive has arrogated itself the role of Parliament on financial allovcation.
• He termed the move illegal actions that amount to bribery of the Judiciary.
Image: RAILA ODINGA/TWITTER
The hurried appointment of the six judges and the proposed annual allocation of Sh3 billion to the Judiciary is part of President William Ruto's scheme to capture the Judiciary, Azimio leader Raila Odinga has said.
Raila termed the move a push by the Executive to own the Judiciary through illegal actions that amount to bribery.
"That is the reason for the rush to appoint six judges and to allocate specific amount of money to the Judiciary," Raila said.
He spoke on Friday in Machakos during a meeting of Azimio leaders called to deliberate on how they will carry out their business on the floor of the House.
Raila said financial allocation of money to institutions and state agencies is done by Parliament based on the scrutiny of budget proposals presented by the institutions.
During his inauguration speech on Tuesday, President William Ruto said he would scale up Judiciary's budgetary allocation by Sh3 billion annually in the next five years in order to give it financial independence.
“To consolidate the place of the Judiciary in our constitutional and democratic dispensation, my administration will respect judicial decisions while we cement the place of Kenya as a country anchored on democracy and the rule of law,” Ruto said.
But Raila said the move is a plain attempt to bribe the Judiciary through bribery.
"How do you say I'm going to give Judiciary Sh3 billion every year. How do you know how much Judiciary requires this year, next year, ten years from now?" he quipped.
Budgetary allocation to the Judiciary has over the years been a thorny issue that once pushed former CJ David Maraga to the edge.
A frustrated Maraga called a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court in November 2019 and publicly complained about how budgetary cuts were crippling judicial operations.
In January 2020, former President Uhuru Kenyatta declined Maraga's request to increase cash allocation to the Judiciary saying the Judiciary should face the reality of the hard economic times and tighten their belts.
The Judiciary was in the 2022-23 budget allocated Sh18.9 billion, an increase of Sh1 billion from the previous financial year.