Chief Justice Interviews: Public Humiliation With One Wicked Eye On The Gallery

The ongoing public interviews for applicants willing to fill the position of Kenya's post new constitution Chief Justice are nothing but a public humiliation that should be stopped and fast. The Judicial Service Commission members are putting the applicants through a public lynching. Any HR practitioner will tell you that the process of recruitment is supposed to be conducted with some dignity bearing in mind that the applicant has a current duty  station.

What we have seen so far is nothing short of settling scores in public, legal activism and the glee of less qualified tormentors sitting to judge men and women whose credentials they may never dream of achieving! To the untrained eye, it all seems a good thing that we can now participate in determining, albeit from the comfort of out TV sofa, who our next CJ will be. Incidentally now that members of the public are also "sitting" in the interview panel, what will happen if the JSC's choice(s) do not match the gallery's choice? Are we ever going to get show respect to the unfortunate man or woman?

Knowing our judiciary's not-so-illustrious -nor-clean history, it seems like the JSC wants to recruit an angel from a pool of crooks. Knowing that the Moi-era judiciary did not enjoy any independence and separation of powers was just a concept on paper, it is not right to humiliate the judges based on cases they ruled once.

What the JSC should have done was ensure anyone with a detestable past did not make the shortlist, otherwise Ahmednasir is just playing the gallery and is not very keen on getting us the most qualified man/woman for the position.

Please keep politics out of the process.