Former DCJ Nancy Baraza reveals the one person behind her woes

Former Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza has revealed the one person at the Judiciary that led to her suspension.

It was alleged that the then Deputy CJ assaulted a female security guard at the Village Market. The Judicial Service Commission recommended her suspension.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on KTN’s PointPointBlank with Tony Gachoka, she singled out a Court of Appeal judge, who she claimed planted stories in the media to see her out of the Deputy Chief Justice (DCJ) job.

“It became a media feast (for) my own colleagues from the Judiciary, and these are not lies because whoever they were calling I was able to get the information. For example, a judge from the Court of Appeal would call somebody from the media and tell them to “keep the story rolling until she gets out,” she said.

She said the motive was to taint her reputation and force her to resign even if  a tribunal did not find her guilty.

“People were calling the media, people were paying people to throw things to the media. The reasoning was that even if she survives the tribunal, she should have no face to come back to the Supreme Court,” she said.

Baraza said the DCJ position was not jinxed, although her successor, Justice Kalpana Rawal also exited under a cloud of controversy and the current holder, Lady Justice Philomena Mwilu, is fighting to stop corruption allegations.

“I don’t know the politics behind it. But if it is because someone has made a mistake that warrants being tossed out then that is okay. But for me, I feel the standards applied on me were too high in the sense that after I left people have done worse things and they have not been harassed the way I was,” she said.

She said if the country applied similar anger used against her on corrupt officials, the war against corruption would have been won by now.

“I keep saying if we employed the same anger as Kenyans, the same anger they applied on me then we would be driving all the thieves out of offices. I say if you set standards then apply them, otherwise someone will say they were unfairly targeted,” she said.

She said her entry to the judiciary disturbed the status quo, and that she and the then Chief Justice Willy Mutunga were regarded as “outsiders.”

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