Opinion
Calling on judges to resign is heretic
Posted Saturday, November 21 2009 at 17:30
As a Roman Catholic, I remember with trepidation the Middle Ages Inquisitions. On complaints from anonymous informers, the church burnt many in the stake. Joan of Arc and Galileo Galilei were victims of this inquisition.
The Church many centuries later canonised Joan of Arc and apologised to Galileo. If we demand of our judges to resign and invite the whole world to bring forward complaints, who will stop mad men concocting complaints just because they lost cases before the judges?
Thomas Paine, a 19th Century revolutionary intellectual and Father of America’s Independence was charged with several sedition crimes in England.
In defending him, Thomas Erskine, a doyen of legal practice said that “… every man… dictated to him as truth … address himself to the … whole nation … analyze the principles of its constitution to point out its errors and defects… and warn his fellow citizens against their ruinous consequences ..”
In calling for judges to resign en masse, Chiromo Draft is subverting the legal foundation of our nation-state and all that we stand for. If this be the only reason to vote NO, so be it.
Donald B. Kipkorir is an advocate of the High Court dkipkorir@ktk.co.ke
-
Submitted by ikiplagatPosted November 22, 2009 06:56 PM
-
Submitted by nickihiu
Donald i never really get what you try to communcate in your articles?
Posted November 22, 2009 04:13 PM -
Submitted by madhair
this article is way out of perspective. the CoE precisely knew that the rot that exists in the judiciary today can only be tackled by applying drastic measures. if they do not resign so that they can be vetted, then the rot will continue. all of them should be replaced as of yesterday!!!
Posted November 22, 2009 03:25 PM -
Submitted by mozenrat
Korir, in light of the advances we have made in the judicial process as you have so expounded on in you article, all frivolous complaints against judges are unlikely to meet the burden of proof required to take action against these judges. So why not subject them to vetting. He that has nothing to hide, has nothing to fear.
Posted November 22, 2009 02:59 PM
RSS
Kenya was independent...but was a satellite state of Great Britain. How is that different from the countries of Eastern Europe which are currently prosperous with per capita incomes 20 times that of Kenya? Most of these countries like Poland, Czech Republic were unwillingly occupied by USSR. They did not join it by will. And by the way, Bosnia-Herzegovina was part of Yugoslavia until 1991 as was Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia whose institutions are so transparent and its people are prosperous. Kenyans must not listen to prophets of doom like Kipkorir. Kenyans will decide if they will sack all judges