• Lobby says the President has been on a sustained pattern of warpath with Judiciary
• They urged him to change course as he bears a profound responsibility as President
Image: ICJ/X
A legal lobby yesterday asked President William Ruto to retract and clarify his statement on judges after he branded them “corrupt”.
The Kenyan section of the International Commission of Jurists said the President’s harsh stance was out of a pattern that he has sustained since he came to power.
He blasts judges and judicial officers whenever a decision he did not like was made, the advocacy group’s chairman Protus Saende said in a statement.
“In 2023, the President issued a stark ultimatum, commonly called ‘Mambo ni Matatu’,” he said.
In the ultimatum to what Ruto called ‘corrupt individuals’, he gave them three choices: leave the country, face imprisonment or embark on a metaphorical journey to heaven.
“This warning was initially pronounced on August 27, 2023, and despite drawing criticism, the President reiterated it on August 30, 2023,” Saende said.
He added that on December 16, 2023, the President said the ceremonial sword given to him by his predecessor, President Uhuru Kenyatta, marked the transfer of power and authority to deal with hardliners.
“You know I was given a sword. Do you think it’s for cutting vegetables? It’s for dealing with all these crooks here. I will uproot them completely, and Kenya will move forward”, Saende quoted the President as saying.
ICJ called out what they termed “an alarming indication of a disregard for the principles of the rule of law to brute force and violence”.
“This shift in approach, from emphasising due process to issuing threats and ultimatums, has raised concerns about preserving the rule of law and the integrity of the judicial system,” Saende said.
“It is imperative to balance combating corruption effectively and upholding the principles of justice and fairness, ensuring that individuals accused of wrongdoing are afforded their rights and treated within the bounds of the law.”
As a recourse, ICJ says Ruto should withdraw the impugned statement “and issue a clarifying statement affirming commitment to upholding the principles of judicial independence and the rule of law”.
The lobby wants all justice sector stakeholders and the general public to be vigilant in defending the rule of law because the journey for the democratic state has been long.
“As a collective of jurists, we are acutely aware of the arduous journey that has brought us to our present state of governance,” Saende said.
“We are a nation that has strived to consciously embrace the rule of law, priorising it over other authoritarian modes of governance.”
They say the President bore much responsibility in ensuring institutions are strengthened to do their work and when they err, are held to account through means that doesn’t undermine public confidence in them.
Saende said as an embodiment of unity, the presidency bears a profound responsibility.
Its occupants should refrain from making statements that could foment discord or undermine the rule of law in Kenya, he said.
“ICJ Kenya remains committed to promoting and defending the rule of law, human rights and the independence of the Judiciary in Kenya,” Saende said.