Then they shared the same platform, protesting against political dictatorship and pushing for constitutional reforms.
And for their spirited struggle, they put their lives on line – were teargased and subjected to rubber whips during street demonstrations and were eventually jailed separately.
Ironically, the comrades in their sixties, and who spent their youthful life fighting injustice under the Kanu regime are now accusing one another of the same.
Following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of his case challenging President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election, a visibly pained Raila returned from a trip in London early May and accused his friend of presiding over an injustice. Mutunga is the President of the Court.
“When the Chief Justice says he is offended pained by the bribery claims, he should know there more Kenyans out there who are more offended by the injustice presided over by his court,” reacted an enraged Raila.
He was reacting to Mutunga’s denial to claims in the social media that he was bribed to throw out Raila’s case. Earlier in London at a breakfast meeting with Kenyans, Raila claimed that it was the CJ who had advised petition defence teams of Uhuru to seeking exclusion of CORD’s 900-page affidavit that “contained damning evidence of the rigged poll.”
Affidavit thrown out
The CJ and his team of five other judges indeed threw out the affidavit. Although the CJ has not personally absolved himself from the Supreme Court’s decision – something that he cannot – he has pointedly asked his accusers to distinguish between him and the Supreme Court.
In other words, he is just one among the other judges and his stand is not binding. Raila and Mutunga have indeed come along way.
In fact Mutunga would not be the CJ today had the former PM not rejected former President Kibaki’s choice of Alanashir Visram.
So just what went wrong between Raila and Mutunga or with the Supreme Court’s alleged anti-Raila ruling? Or did the CJ, in the self-guilt of running away from the Raila-tag, move so much to the extreme left and hurt his friend?
- The Standard
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