Lawyers have supported Chief Justice David Maraga calls to the Executive to obey court orders and accused the president of showing a bad example by refusing to appoint 41 judges.
Law Society of Kenya president Nelson Havi (pictured) said the president had a contract with the people to obey and uphold the constitution and must honour that contract by respecting court orders.
“The president should lead by example and obey the court orders by appointing the judges. I think it is the president’s advisers misleading him since they should tell him that the government must obey and follow the rule of law,” said Havi.
The LSK boss said the tendency to disobey court orders is interfering with independence of the Judiciary as some judges feel demoralised when they should have the freedom to decide on cases without undue influence.
The lawyers said it is painful to work hard by drafting cases to defend a client but when you win you cannot enjoy fruits of your labour because the government has refused to obey the court order.
Kenya Human Rights Commission Executive Director George Kegoro asked President Kenyatta to respect the court orders and appoint the 41 judges, arguing that the ongoing impasse undermines the presumption of regularity in performance of official duties.
“Each day the impasse remains unresolved contributes to the erosion of confidence between departments and will encourage public officials to question regularity of one another’s decisions and the loss of public confidence in government decisions,” said Kegoro.
Veteran lawyer Dr John Khaminwa said it is unfortunate for the government to disobey court orders especially without any reason for the action.
“It is painful for a lawyer to go home celebrating that you have won a case only to be woken up in the middle of the night that the court order you secured is being violated,” said Khaminwa.
Kituo Cha Sheria programmes officer John Mwariri said the civil society is worried about the direction the country is heading.
He said the government should not choose which court orders to obey and that even if they dislike and disrespect a judge, they should at least respect decisions and orders issued by that judge.
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