Judiciary has proved to be the people’s champion

Kenyans must be very proud of their Judiciary. They must be ready to protect their Judiciary. The Judiciary is the people’s judiciary. It is the people’s watchman, protecting the public from an all-conquering Executive and a Legislature on the rampage.

It may not be the perfect Judiciary but of the three arms of government, it is the only institution that is in sync with the people’s aspirations.

Last week, the High Court sitting in Nairobi and in Kerugoya delivered two historic judgments that pierced a sharp constitutional dagger into the heart of the Executive and parliamentary impunity.

(READ: High Court reinstates Wambora as Embu governor)

In the first case, following ill-advised action by the President to disband the Judicial Service Commission and constitute a tribunal entirely made up of members of his ruling party, designed to cow and control the Judiciary, a five-judge bench asserted judicial independence and the supremacy of the Constitution that left the President embarrassed.

In the second case, a three-judge bench sitting in Kerugoya reversed the decision of the Senate to impeach Embu Governor Martin Wambora.

Mr Wambora was impeached in what was a classic kangaroo trial presided over by cheering, fervent and impressionable senators, oblivious of the gravity of the matter at hand, and that was clearly out of their depth. They showed little regard to constitutionalism and the rule of law.

In both cases, the judges left no doubt in the minds of the President and Parliament that where a breach of the Constitution is raised, any of their decisions is within the reach of the supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court.

Nothing that occurs in the country is off-limits for judicial intervention, the courts warned. Both cases nipped in the bud treacherous designs by political henchmen who conspired to cripple the Judiciary and the county governments.

In the first instance, the President wanted to create a JSC that was moulded according to his vision with the concomitant design to influence from State House future appointments of all judges to the Judiciary. That design, if successful, would have led to a constitutional calamity of unimaginable proportions.

In the second case, the Senate was hell-bent on ensuring that devolution was killed at infancy. The Senate’s impeachment of Wambora was obviously a treasonable act against the Constitution.

Both cases were coordinated and choreographed by the Executive and the Legislature to inaugurate a new era of Executive and Parliamentary dictatorship unlimited by any sense of fidelity to our constitutional order.

The Judiciary has been placed on a special pedestal by our Constitution. It has the sole authority to interpret the Constitution. It has the sole and final authority to adjudicate over disputes.

Its decisions are binding whether the Executive and Legislature like it or not. The earlier the Executive and the Legislature come to terms with a more confident and assertive Judiciary, the better.

The Judiciary hasn’t disappointed Kenyans in the past three years. It answered every time it was called to stand up for the Constitution, and it will continue to do so.

But the Judiciary has very powerful enemies. We have seen how Parliament has slashed its budget by almost 40 per cent. The greatest challenge it faces is from Parliament and members of the ruling coalition in both Houses.

Some are tribal zealots in pursuit of narrow communal agenda, who are oblivious to the importance of the Judiciary in our constitutional order. And it is here that the people of Kenya must stand with the Judiciary.

There are many judges who are on the firing line on a daily basis. Because of the nature of the disputes they adjudicate over, they have enemies all over.

What should worry Kenyans is the threat to judicial independence from the State and its organs, especially from security agents.

Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi is the publisher, Nairobi Law Monthly