MPs: Court erred over JSC ruling
PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | FILE Chief Justice Willy Mutunga (centre), flanked by JSC members, addresses the media at the Supreme Court in Nairobi in the past. The High Court has declared the appointment of a tribunal by President Uhuru Kenyatta to investigate six members of the Judicial Service Commission as null and void.
The supremacy battle between Parliament and judges escalated Wednesday after MPs rejected a ruling seeking to clip its powers and vowed to seek Supreme Court’s intervention.
The lawmakers said the High Court erred in declaring that the House had no supervisory role over the Judicial Service Commission.
They said they would lobby colleagues to seek interpretation from the highest court in the land in order to preserve Parliament’s role in playing oversight over all institutions and constitutional commissions.
“The judgment is a bit skewed in favour of one party. It is a disappointment. We expected the High Court to rise above the supremacy battle among the arms of government but it has not. In fact it has fuelled it further by taking sides,” said Ol Jorok MP John Waiganjo.
“We have no choice but go to the Supreme Court. This matter should be sorted once for all. We are telling other commissions that they can go to court to block Parliament from playing oversight over their actions,” the legislator said Wednesday.
Mukurwe-ini MP Kabando wa Kabando decried the rulings made by judges saying they were contestable. He defended parliament saying it could not be “gagged” by anyone including the Judiciary.
“Judiciary is making some isolated and outraged rulings. Amidst rising insecurity and overburdened security officers, a judge purported to stop the President from presiding over graduation of newly recruited. Parliament can be corrected but not gagged. Our power is derived from the supreme law,” he said.
Parliament and courts have been at loggerheads over who should call shots between them. The two arms of government are yet to agree on who holds more powers over the other. The lawmakers said its role was well protected in the Constitution.
They said it set a wrong precedence and that the ruling would give leverage other commissions to oppose summons from parliamentary committees.
“Parliamentary oversight is not optional. It is mandatory and covers institutions including the judiciary, presidency and everyone else. But parliamentary interrogation should not mean micromanaging others. However in the end, people’s representatives are the bane and hallmark of our democracy,” added Mr Kabando.
On Tuesday, a five-judge bench faulted MPs who summoned JSC saying the lawmakers did not have powers to supervise the commission.
The source of the tug-of-war is the JSC’s suspension of former registrar Gladys Shollei. Parliamentary committee on Legal Affairs chaired by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga criticized JSC for the action and summoned the commission’s members to appear before it. The commissioners went to court seeking to safeguard its independence from parliament’s interference.
Law Society of Kenya Chairman Eric Mutua said the High Court’s decision was well within the Constitution.
“The ruling captures and protects the role of the Judicial Service Commission as enshrined in the Constitution. What people are missing is that one of the JSC roles is to safeguard the independence of the judiciary,” said Mr Mutua Wednesday.
The LSK chairman added that any interference with the duties of the JSC amounted to “interfering with the Judiciary.”
