ODM leader Raila Odinga has called for an end to the current impasse between the Executive and the Judiciary that threatens to get out of hand.

Raila warned that the country cannot survive a supremacy war between its institutions, especially the two arms of government.

He appealed to the leaders of the three arms of government; Executive, Judiciary and Legislature, to urgently seek avenues to break the stalemate and find an equilibrium to achieve a more effective, people-driven government.

The former Prime Minister said the Kenyan constitution was built around the doctrine of the separation of powers that require the three branches of the government to be held by different institutions without one interfering with the other.

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In his statement, Raila said that after the re-calibration of the constitutional order under the 2010 constitution, the three branches of government seem to struggle to find their respective positions in the constitutional order causing confusion.

“Unfortunately, it now appears that in doing so, we have ended up with a catastrophic and extreme swing of the pendulum as our three branches of the government try to find their respective positions in the constitutional order,” Raila said in the statement.

He noted that the competition among the three branches of the government has thrown the nation into an absurd state of affairs.

The ODM leader emphasised that all the three branches of the government need to work in tandem with one another to help Kenyans solve their problems.

“Yet the fact is no branch of government can help Kenyans solve their problems without the help of the other. No one institution can become the sole and undisputed liberator of the people of Kenya. Any attempt by any one arm of the government to outshine the others or to show that it’s the one that matters the most only works to hurt the common Kenyan and the interest of the nation.” the statement read in part.

He added that the country deserved an informed debate rather than a bitter exchange concerning the critical matter.

He said that Kenyans need to be aware of the reasons the different branches of the government have taken the positions they have on the critical issue of the appointment of judges.

Raila’s statement comes after different leaders came out to ask President Uhuru Kenyatta to appoint the 6 nominees whose name he rejected citing questionable integrity issues.

Uhuru appointed 34 judges but rejected the other 6 and he said his decision to reject them was informed by materials in the hands of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and other security organs.