Chief Justice David Maraga Reveals Why He Skipped President Uhuru's Parliament Address

Chief Justice David Maraga has revealed why he and other Supreme Court Judges skipped the official opening of the 12th Parliament by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday.

Through his personal assistant, Mundia Muchiri, the CJ said that he was not invited to the function.

"I can speak on good authority and say that there is no invite that was sent to the CJ unless it was sent generally to the Judiciary, which should not be the case,".

"The Speaker should, as a matter of protocol, send the invite to the CJ, for if you do not invite the Chief Justice, then who else have you invited?" Muchiri told
The Standard .

There are reports that some Supreme Court judges missed the function as they were busy writing the much-awaited ruling of the presidential petition.

It is said that an official apology was sent by judiciary to the State House explaining why the judges would skip the function, the Standard reports.

"They are under a lot of pressure to have the judgment ready. Considering that the event would take a whole day and they have to deliver on their promise, they could not attend. It is not a boycott," a source stated.

It is a tradition of Parliament that judges of the highest court attend the first sitting of a new National Assembly and the Senate.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi said that the Judiciary had been invited and he did not know why it failed to show up.

"I am reliably informed by the Clerk that they were invited. We always invite them, at least the Chief Justice and other judges for such functions. I do not know why they did not attend," said Muturi.