Kenya’s highest court has struck after recent allegations of corruption and incompetence within the judiciary.
“In all the 22 years that I have been a judge and chief justice, no one has ever approached me with a bribe. I would like to have them arrested,” Martha Koome told the BBC.
The country’s first female chief justice was recently accused of failing to properly investigate and address allegations of bribery and corruption within the judiciary.
Some Kenyans refer to ‘jurispesa’ – a corruption of the legal term jurisprudence and pesa (the Swahili word for money) – implying corruption in the judiciary.
But she defended herself and her colleagues and asked anyone making such accusations to present the evidence to the security services or the judicial oversight committee.
She told the BBC Africa Daily podcast that the claims “should reduce my credibility. It should distract me. I know who I am and I know what I’ve done and what I’m going to do.”
She said she would always remain impartial.
The Kenyan judiciary has long been marred by claims of corruption and in 2021 Judge Koome told the BBC that corruption was “a national disgrace within and outside the judiciary.
She said some of the criticism she faced had to do with her gender. “It’s total misogyny. It’s total chauvinism.”
She also said that one of the things she was most passionate about was tackling violence against women.
She said it was “utterly disheartening” that “every day there is a report of a young woman who has lost her life to violence”.
Judge Koome said there were many rape cases that were not moving at all or were waiting in court due to lack of witnesses.
There has been a recent increase in violence against women, with police announcing that nearly a hundred women and girls have been murdered in the past three months.
According to the Africa Data Hub, more than 500 women fell victim to femicide in Kenya between 2016 and 2024.
Judge Koome expressed her commitment to addressing the issue by making justice available to women across the country.
She has said she plans to open 11 courts across the country specializing in sexual and gender-related crimes – two of which have already been established in the western provinces of Kisumu and Siaya.
“We have great hope in them because cases of gender-based violence should be prioritized. So that the victim who has been violated does not continue to appear in court year after year,” she said.
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