DO YOU SUPPORT MUTUNGA'S ENDEAVOURS

The newly appointed Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya Mr. Willy Mutunga took office Monday20th June 2011 with a solemn promise to wipe out corruption and end impunity in the Judiciary.

Mr Mutunga replaces Justice Evans Gicheru who retired in February this year in tandem with the new Constitution.

He will be deputised by Ms Nancy Baraza who was also sworn-in together with Director of Public Prosecutions Mr Keriako Tobiko in a ceremony witnessed by President Kibaki, Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Raila Odinga, Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo and Attorney-General Amos Wako.

In his acceptance speech The New Cj said that expectations of the new Constitution, was to put tyranny, oppression and exploitation, opacity and impunity on the back foot “while making strides towards freedom, opportunity, transparency and liberty”.

Mr Mutunga faces an uphill task of cleaning up the image of the Judiciary by providing leadership to an institution viewed as most corrupt compared to other government agencies.

The CJ is also expected to address the issue of case backlog that continue to stalk the Judiciary. An ecomonic survey revealed that by December 2009, there were 910,013 pending cases – 2,372 in the Court of Appeal, 115,344 at the High Court and 792,297 at the magistrate’s courts.

Do you think Mr Mutunga's Endeavours will suceed?

Were the youth ably catered for in the budget?

During the 2011/2012 budget the finance minister Hon Uhuru Kenyatta highlighted the youth as being a key area of focus in the Kenyan economy.He credited the youth with pioneering innovations in the ICT sector that has given Kenya, an international recognition in the area of mobile technology, and for this reason he said the government will tap into this pool of resources to push the country's economy up the technology value chain.

To this end, we have scaled up the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project (KYEP) by Sh210 million to go towards labour-intensive works and social services, bringing the total expenditure for KYEP to Sh1.8 billion in 2011/12," he said.

The Minister also mentioned the challenge facing the youth in securing internships for prior experience when applying for formal employment, subsequently he said he will urge the private sector to avail opportunities to the youth to harness their potential.

"To address this challenge, he said his ministry will be consulting with private sector players on the best ways to extend tax breaks for firms offering internship and training placement for youth, training and passing on the relevant work experience and enhancing the employability of youth," he ensured.

Do you think the finance minister addressed the plight of the youth fully?