Kenya’s Chief Justice Denies Ever Being Offered a Bribe

Kenya’s highest-ranking judge has responded to recent claims of corruption and inefficiency within the judicial system. Martha Koome stated to the BBC, “In all these 22 years I’ve been a judge and a chief justice, nobody has ever approached me with a bribe. I would have them arrested.” The nation’s inaugural female chief justice has recently faced accusations of inadequately investigating and addressing claims of bribery and corruption within the judiciary. Certain Kenyans have adopted the term “jurispesa” – a portmanteau of the legal concept jurisprudence and “pesa,” the Swahili word for money – to suggest the presence of corruption within the judiciary. However, she defended both herself and her fellow judicial officers, urging individuals making such accusations to submit their evidence to either security agencies or the judicial oversight commission. Speaking on the BBC Africa Daily podcast, she asserted that the claims were “supposed to lower my credibility. It is supposed to distract me. I know who I am and I know what I have done and what I am going to do.” She affirmed her commitment to always maintaining impartiality. The judiciary in Kenya has historically been affected by allegations of corruption, and in 2021, Justice Koome informed the BBC that corruption constituted “a national embarrassment in and out of the judiciary.” She also attributed some of the criticism directed at her to her gender, stating, “It is total misogyny. It is total chauvinism.” Furthermore, she highlighted that a primary focus of her passion was tackling violence against women. She described it as “completely disheartening” that “every other day there is a report of a young woman who has lost her life through violence”. Justice Koome noted that numerous rape cases were either stalled or pending in court due to an absence of witnesses. A recent surge in violence against women has been observed, with police reporting that close to 100 women and girls were killed over the last three months. According to the Africa Data Hub, over 500 women in Kenya were victims of femicide between 2016 and 2024. Justice Koome conveyed her dedication to addressing this problem by ensuring access to justice for women nationwide. She has stated her intention to establish 11 specialized courts across the nation for sexual and gender-based crimes, with two already operational in the western Kisumu and Siaya counties. She remarked, “We have a lot of hope in them because cases of gender-based violence must be given priority. So that the victim who was violated does not keep coming to court, year in year out.”