While at the University of Nairobi, he served as the secretary-general of the University Staff Union from April until July when it was banned. Mutunga was thereafter detained for 16 months for his activism while at the University of Nairobi and for his work at the Legal Advice Centre Kituo Cha Sheria.
For his outstanding contribution to the development of law, human rights, good governance and social justice, Dr. Between and , Dr.
Country of Reform:. Date of Interview:. Thursday, October 8, Full Transcript. Download PDF. Under his watch, the notion of the judiciary as an institutional political actor began to take root. While all Afrobarometer website content is free for public use, we ask those using our data sets to register a user name, password, and email address.
Willy Mutunga. Access to data sets X. His atypical profile made him try other professional experiences before his ascension to the Presidency of the Supreme Court. He had not absented himself from the public debates, which he participated through a weekly column in the Saturday Nation , under the alias Cabral Pinto — a double tribute to the revolutionary Amilcar Cabral from Guinea Bissau, assassinated in , and to Pio Gama Pinto, a journalist and a Kenyan political activist, killed in Defying the reluctances, he decided to abolish the wig for judges and to change their red robe, both inherited from the colonial years.
These measures aimed at showing Kenyans that the justice could come closer to the public. The effect of surprise of his appointment and the relative fragility of an Executive and a Parliament at the end of their service allowed him to put in place certain reforms quickly, like the computerization of the courts or the strengthening of the initial and continuing training for judges.
He also introduced a periodic rotation of judges and the opening of many courts in regions that had been up to then totally abandoned by the Judicial Institution. The increase in number of judges and magistrates helped reduce the number of neglected files by half. However, this actual evolution of the judicial institution towards more independence and integrity had its limits. For the first time in his career, Willy Mutunga evolved in a professional environment that was widely hostile to him.
Some incompetent or corrupt judges did not want to be pushed around. He witnessed the most difficult test of his career. In March , the very close results of the Kenyan presidential election, which gave victory to Uhuru Kenyatta with The Chief Justice and the other Supreme Court Judges had to take the role of arbitrators of the political life and they were subjected to immense pressure, considering the fact that five years earlier the contested re-election of President Mwai Kibaki had led to terrible violence.
In their eyes, this validation of a spoilt ballot was a very hard blow to the quite young constitution. The situation remained unpleasant for Willy Mutunga. Having rejected every criticism at first, he became more at ease and promised to return on this controversial decision after his departure from the Supreme Court A little after, Willy Mutunga also had to face a media after one of his close colleagues, in charge of Judicial Administration Chief Registrar , Gladys Shollei, was accused of embezzling funds.
She was dismissed from her position in October , with the approval of the Chief Justice. The Supreme Court and its President were weakened by this series of tests. Especially since the political configuration had changed since , with a new Kenyatta-Ruto Executive in office which was less favourable to the new Constitution Many laws going against the spirit of the new Constitution were voted by the Parliament, restraining press freedom or hardening financing conditions for certain non-governmental organizations.
In October , Willy Mutunga announced that he was going to take an early retirement, in June , while he could have stayed in office for one more year until his 70th birthday. After that announcement, his words and his actions became freer, to the point of annoying certain commentators accusing him of having become an activist again prematurely.
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