Mutunga was appointed in June 2011 and has overseen a number of reforms within the Judiciary/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, June 14 – Chief Justice Willy Mutunga will on Wednesday deliver his farewell address at the Senate ahead of his retirement on Thursday.
Mutunga who is also the President of the Supreme Court will be stepping down one year before his term ends in June 2017.
Mutunga was appointed in June 2011 and has overseen a number of reforms within the Judiciary.
It was also during his tenure that he presided over the presidential election petition filed by Raila Odinga which was the first under the new Constitution. Odinga had challenged the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the President of the Republic of Kenya.
Mutunga will retire early even as two Supreme Court Judges seek to extend their tenure so that they can retire at the age of seventy-four.
The Supreme Court will Tuesday afternoon make a ruling on whether it has the jurisdiction to hear the appeal in the judges’ retirement age case.
A five judge bench headed by Mutunga will make the decision whether it has the powers to decide the retirement age of Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal and Justice Philip Tunoi.
The decision will determine whether the two judges will proceed to retirement.
Tunoi’s lawyer Pheroze Nowrojee and Waweru Gatonye for Justice Rawal demanded that a ruling be given on whether the judges have jurisdiction to entertain appeals by the two challenging the retirement age of 70.
The same plea was echoed by JSC lawyer Paul Muite, and activist Okiya Omtatah, who challenged the court’s powers to entertain the two judges’ cases.
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