Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has responded to Chief Justice Martha Koome’s concerns over cyberbullying targeting judicial officers, noting that the issue extends to all public servants, including the President.
Speaking in Nyandarua County during the launch of a grassroots security engagement programme, Murkomen acknowledged that the Chief Justice was justified in raising the matter but stressed that judges are not the only ones subjected to online harassment.
“Nobody in Kenya is bullied more than the President. Bullying is a very serious crime that we are abetting,” Murkomen said, adding that after the President, politicians and security officers are next in line.
The CS noted that police officers, too, are frequently targeted online, sometimes with their families being dragged into the fray.
“Even police officers are bullied all the time — their names and even their children’s names are publicised. My message to the Chief Justice is that we are all being bullied,” he said.
“The only difference is that, as Judiciary, you have normalised the bullying of the Legislature and Executive.”
Murkomen added that judicial officers are often unsympathetic when others face harassment, citing instances where courts dismiss charges related to online bullying as attacks on free speech.
“When officers charge someone with bullying, magistrates and judges say we are attacking freedoms. I’m glad the Chief Justice has spoken about bullying. It is time this country has an open conversation about it.”
His remarks come a day after Chief Justice Koome, while opening the 2025 Judges’ Colloquium in Nairobi, raised concern over what she termed a rising wave of coordinated online attacks against judges.
“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,” CJ Koome said.
She warned that such attacks are eroding public confidence in the justice system, stressing that defamatory content targeting individual judges should not be mistaken for legitimate criticism.
