Koome warns rising cyberbullying of judges eroding confidence in courts » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 18 — Chief Justice Martha Koome has raised alarm over the rising wave of cyberbullying and orchestrated online campaigns targeting judges, warning that the trend threatens judicial independence and risks eroding public confidence in the justice system.

Speaking at the opening of the 2025 Judges’ Colloquium in Nairobi, the CJ said social media platforms, while useful for dialogue and information sharing, have increasingly become spaces where judges are harassed and maligned.

“Over the last one year, we have witnessed a worrying and ugly trend of increased cyberbullying, targeted harassment, and orchestrated online campaigns against judges and judicial officers,” she said.

“This sustained social media onslaught is not merely a passing wave of criticism; it is a calculated attempt to weaken the moral authority of the Judiciary and to intimidate judges into silence or into bending the law to the whims of some nefarious interests.”

Koome warned that unfounded accusations and defamatory allegations circulating online are not just personal attacks on individual judges but an attempt to corrode confidence in the entire justice system.

“If left unchecked, this culture of digital intimidation risks creating a chilling effect where judges feel pressured to decide cases in line with political expedience or wishes of certain private and commercial interests, rather than in fidelity to the Constitution and the law,” she cautioned.

The Chief Justice disclosed that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had expressed concern over the cyberattacks and indicated readiness to send the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers on a fact-finding mission to Kenya.

“This troubling development is a moment of reckoning for the Kenyan Judiciary, for it compels us to reaffirm the centrality of judicial independence in a democratic society and to resist any encroachments, however subtle or aggressive, that would erode it,” she said.

Koome stressed that judicial independence extends beyond freedom from external control to include protection from digital intimidation, political interference, or physical threats.

She urged judges to remain steadfast in their duty, saying the Judiciary must continue to serve as “the last line of defence for justice, rights, and the rule of law.”

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