• Ruto insisted that not a shilling from his administration will be used to bribe judges for them not to derail or sabotage his plans for the country.
• He said that working with the good ones, corruption in the judiciary can be uprooted.
Image: PCS
President William Ruto has affirmed that bribing judges will never happen under his watch.
In a statement on Thursday, Ruto insisted that not a shilling from his administration will be used to bribe judges.
The President who was responding lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi said that despite there being corrupt judicial officers, many of them have good morals.
He said that by working with the good ones, corruption in the judiciary can be uprooted.
"Ahmednasir SC, you warned me of sabotage by corrupt judicial officers. I told you there are many good officers in the judiciary and that we will root out the corrupt. We shall. Muite SC, the impunity of bribing judges so as not to derail, delay, or sabotage Kenya’s imminent transformation will never happen under my watch. Not a single cent will be used to bribe nobody. Mambo ya wafisadi wote ni yale nilisema....." Ruto said on X.
His remarks were in response to lawyers Ahmednasir and Paul Muite.
Ahmednasir had on Wednesday asked the head of state to borrow the methods of the previous administration instead of disobeying court orders.
He alleged that the former regime bribed judges to rule in their favour in several high-profile cases, insisting that it was an open secret.
Muite on his part backed Ahmednasir's claims but added that President Ruto should not follow the same route.
According to Muite, two wrongs don't make a right.
"President WSR shouldn't however copy his predecessor; two wrongs never make a right!"
This comes amidst an uproar over Ruto's remarks on corruption in the judiciary.
His remarks come after Ruto for the second time in a week launched a scathing attack on what he termed corrupt judicial officers working in cahoots with graft cartels to stall his development agenda.
An agitated President went further to declare that his administration would defy judgements made by corrupt courts.
“I want to announce here that a few people with vested interests who are beneficiaries of corruption in NHIF are now ganging up with corrupt judicial officers to stall reforms so that fake hospital claims will continue, I want to assure you that this will not happen in Kenya again and we will stop it,” he said.
“Our Judiciary, we respect you but judicial impunity by corrupt judicial officers must stop in Kenya. We will stop it and whatever it takes,” he added.