Press Release; Attacks on the Judiciary by Political Leaders

The unexpected attack by His Excellency The President together with his team on the Judiciary yesterday while on campaign is not only unfortunate but regrettable and likely to herald a state of anarchy as this country moves to the August 8th General Elections and The Central Organization of Trade Unions, COTU (K) as the umbrella workers body in the country now cautions the Jubilee leadership against such uncalled for utterances likely to erode the much needed confidence in our Judiciary and fail the country into delivering a credible election.
More importantly, the Presidency is the highest office on the land and any utterance coming from him will have far reaching implications compared to any other office nor individual be it the opposition leader or otherwise and as the custodian of our political, economic and social welfare, we expect the President to be above such and continue to live up to his oath of office to protect our Constitution while respecting the very tenets of this Constitution on the separation of powers and the independence of our Judiciary.
Particularly, as a country we will be setting a dangerous precedence to allow any arm of government or individual to attack and insult the Chief Justice or even his office and accuse him on grounds that he has influence on individual court rulings. It is the highest form of impunity that ought not to be allowed since in case of any dispute arising from our forthcoming elections, it would be hard to move to the same institution to arbitrate.
This very Constitution compels every Kenyan, all citizens and the government to adhere to the rule of law and nobody should resort into condemning any ruling by our courts since these are independent institutions whereupon anybody aggrieved by any ruling is by law required to move to a higher court and/or court of appeal and argue his/her case and we have cases where our appeals’ courts have gone ahead to reverse such rulings and this shows how independent our judges remain.
Our President should not be seen agitated when aggrieved by any court ruling and resorting to uncouth attacks on the Judiciary which over the years has remained free and independent and COTU (K) calls upon the President and his team to be real mangers of our society and security since should anything happen as per such utterances, it’s our children, women and workers who will be on the receiving end and bear all manner of suffering.
Let anyone aggrieved by the Friday Court ruling proceed to be heard at the Court of Appeal without hurling insults and missiles at such a professional body that protects all under the law and insults at our Chief Justice and the judges will no doubt destabilize our confidence in the Judiciary.
Kenya is bigger than all of us and let us not use our positions in power and influence to attack independent institutions as such behavior negates the very principal of constitutionalism and we appeal to His Excellency the President and his team not to appear desperate before the elections date since nobody knows the outcome of this election as of now and we should stop creating a panicky mode amongst Kenya s as this will lead to fear and despondency being created amongst the voters.
Let us all as Kenyans get committed to peaceful campaigns and hope for peaceful, open, fair and democratic elections.
Francis Atwoli,NOM(DZA),EBS,MBS
SECRETARY GENERAL