Kenyatta cries foul over judiciary after poll ruling

NAIROBI: Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta says the country has “a problem” with its judiciary that must be fixed.

He was speaking on Saturday, a day after the Supreme Court annulled his election win last month and ordered a new poll within 60 days.

“We shall revisit this thing. We clearly have a problem,” Kenyatta said, referring to the judiciary.

“Who even elected you? Were you? We have a problem and we must fix it,” he said, speaking on live television at the State House in Nairobi after he met governors and other elected officials from his Jubilee party.

Kenyatta, however, also repeated his earlier message that he would respect the court’s ruling.

The decision to annul the election was an unprecedented move in Africa where governments often hold sway over judges – and the first time on the continent that a court ruled against the electoral victory of an incumbent.

The president’s latest comments marked the second time since Friday’s ruling that he has spoken critically about the judiciary in public. On Friday at an impromptu rally in Nairobi, he accused the court of ignoring the will of the people and dismissed the chief justice’s colleagues as “wakora”, or crooks.

The president’s public appearances since the ruling suggest he intends to campaign rigorously ahead of the re-run of the August 8 poll. He said via Twitter: “For now let us meet at the ballot.” – Reuters