Chief Justice Martha Koome Lacks Emotional Intelligence – Nelson Havi

Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Nelson Havi has said that is it common sense that no judge can go on strike.

His words came after Chief Justice Martha Koome’s response to former CJ Willy Mutunga to have judges down their tools because the government has been disobeying court orders.

According to the LSK president, CJ Koome lacks emotional intelligence and that she did not have to respond to the calls by the former CJ, calling on judges to go on strike.

“Chief Justice Martha Koome lacks emotional intelligence. She needed not respond to Retired Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga’s call for Judges to go on strike. It is common sense that Judges cannot go on strike,” Havi said.

Mutunga had on Thursday asked judges to down their tools to compel the Executive arm of government to obey court orders and rule of law.

[Chief Justice Martha Koome]

In her response however, CJ Koome told judges to disregard her predecessor’s calls and instead focus on progressive reforms to reduce the case backlog.

She noted that when Mutunga served as the chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission, he disapproved any action by judges to strike.

“The implications of calling for a judicial strike are far-reaching. It is in part, calling for the suspension or dismemberment of the Constitution by excluding one arm of Government from the constitutional operations of our democratic state.”

“We must all stand together to find lesser damaging alternatives which are not at variance with our collective obligations as a people to defend the Constitution,” Koome said.