Senate hits back in row with courts

What you need to know:

  • Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro said he had initiated talks with the Judiciary in a bid to resolve the matter that threatens the relationship between the House and the Judiciary.

Senators Sunday vowed to continue with their campaign to have the Judiciary stopped from meddling in the affairs of the Senate.

The senators took issue with claims by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) that their colleagues, who are lawyers, are the ones at the forefront in attacking the Judiciary.

LSK chairman Eric Mutua and Chief Executive Officer Apollo Mboya had faulted the legislators’ onslaught on the Judiciary saying the courts were acting within the law and should be spared the attacks.

“As a profession, we get worried that the ring leaders of these unwarranted attacks are our fellow lawyers who ought to understand what the law says,” said Mr Mboya.

But Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki (Tharaka-Nithi, TNA), a lawyer, said contrary to the position taken by LSK, lawyers in the Senate have no regrets for telling the Judiciary to respect the principle of separation of powers and keep off their affairs.

“What the Judiciary is entertaining and is being aided and abetted by our professional colleagues is a constitutional crisis. There is no way Parliament will be subservient to the Judiciary,” Prof Kindiki said on Sunday in Nairobi.

INITIATED TALKS

Other senators who are lawyers and who have been vocal in this row are Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang’ula (Bungoma, Ford-K),) Mong’are Bw’okong’o (Ford, K), Kiraitu Murungi (Meru, APK) and Kembi Gitura (Murang’a, TNA) and Kipchumba Murkomen (Elgeyo-Marakawet, URP).

Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro said he had initiated talks with the Judiciary in a bid to resolve the matter that threatens the relationship between the House and the Judiciary.
“Nobody has powers to injunct Parliament and its committees from conducting their business,” he said.

On Embu Governor Martin Wambora who is office on orders of the court even after a Senate impeachment, Mr Ethuro said the House does not recognise Mr Wambora as the governor.
Mr Bw’okongo said some of the latest decisions from the courts bordered on judicial activism.

Mr Gitura who is the Deputy Speaker said the fact that Mr Wambora was still in office, following a court order, does not mean the Senate was weak.

“The Senate impeached him and he is in office courtesy of a court order. It performed its duty in accordance with the law,” said Mr Gitura.