This is the legacy that Chief Justice Koome would like to leave behind

Kenya’s governing system, seemingly copied from the United States, has three branches of government called Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary that are autonomous, interdependent, and theoretically check each other. In reality, however, the Executive overshadows the others and the Judiciary is the weakest because it relies on the other two for resources and enforcement. It often plays safe because, as one judge commented in the 1980s, it does not exist in a political vacuum. In those days the President appointed the Chief Justice and other judges as he wished, and most judges knew their place. The Judiciary, therefore, struggles to assert independence in the midst of political mischief.