Willy Mutunga, who chaired Kenya’s Supreme Court, has been accused along with five fellow judges of corruption following their unanimous decision that Kenyatta had been “validly elected” and that Odinga failed to offer enough evidence of alleged malpractice to overturn the outcome of the vote. Odinga and his officials have made no public allegations but disquiet among the former president’s supporters and online sniping is rife.
“For me, the most hurtful allegation was that I had been bribed in the Presidential Petition.” Mutunga said in a statement. “I have never been offered a bribe in my life.”
Mutunga, a well-respected lawyer, was appointed in 2011 to reform a judiciary seen as in the pay of the political elite.
“I have no doubt in my mind that anybody who dares offer me a bribe, regardless of status, would be the first one I arrest under the constitution and the laws of this land.”
Mutunga said the online attacks on him were “indecent, vulgar, and unacceptable”.
The chief justice, who ran his statement on Twitter and Facebook, urged anyone with evidence of bribery to present it to the Judicial Service Commission.
Although Odinga, 68, accepted the ruling of the court, he said he did not fully agree with it, having alleged “rampant illegalities” in the vote.
Mutunga has complained of harassment before, citing threats to himself and other judges by a criminal gang in a court case where rights groups sought to bar Kenyatta from running for the presidency in view of his imminent case in the International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity. So far no one has been arrested over Mutunga’s claims.
Corruption is a big issue in Kenya and holds back the economy by choking investment. Transparency International ranks Kenya 139th out of the 174 nations in its 2012 global corruption perception index, lagging behind its neighbours.
