Former Minister of Justice Martha Karua has protested the move by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to kick out Kenya Human Rights Commission chairman Prof Makau Mutua from the race to succeed Willy Mutunga.
Through her twitter handle, Karua termed the JSC as having relied on non-essential considerations not to shortlist Mutua.
“The JSC appears to have relied on extraneous considerations in refusing to shortlist Prof Makau Mutua for the post of CJ which is unacceptable,” Martha Karua tweeted.
The former Gichugu MP went further to call on JSC to reveal to the public how they carried out the shortlisting of the applicants.
“JSC should account to Kenyans on their criteria for shortlisting candidates ! Public have a right to know,” She tweeted.
Prof Mutua is a fierce critic of the Jubilee government. This has largely been viewed as the reason for his fate on the Chief justice recruitment.
In 2014 Mutua wrote an article on a local paper stating that he will not accept Uhuru Kenyatta as president.
"As a matter of freedom of conscience and thought, I can't accept Uhuru Kenyatta as President of Kenya. I can't and I won't,” Mutua wrote in a local paper in December 2014.
JSC shortlisted 6 out of 14 applicants for the post of the CJ including Justices Alnashir Visram, Smokin Wanjala, Roselyne N. Nambuye, David Maraga, Mbogholi Msagha and legal scholar Philip Nzamba Kitonga.