“I went to the chambers of some woman judge and I saw she had five flasks of tea and so I went back and asked ‘is the tea for everybody at the Judiciary?’
“I was told, ‘what are you talking about? We don’t have tea.’
“I said why would somebody have five flasks of tea?”
He later gave orders that every judicial staff member was entitled to have tea everyday at 11am. Of course it was a decision that rubbed the ‘seniors’ the wrong way but with time they had no choice.”
“The judges initially boycotted because they were always aloof that they could not see how they could have tea with lesser mortals. After a while they got used to it, and that’s laughable.”
But on further interaction with subordinate staff especially Peninah, a tea girl designated to the CJ’s office for over 35 years, Dr Mutunga could not ignore the humiliation he saw on her face.
“I got to the office and Peninah who makes tea for the CJ – she brought the tea and when I asked her… what is your name, she almost dropped the tray.”
“Every moment I can tell you, tied with transformation was laughable but then I knew this cannot happen.”
Appalling as the situation was, it was the lenses of the likes of Peninah that gave him an entry point to reforming a Judiciary that Kenyans no longer trusted and appreciated.
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