Lawyers seek to block law changes

  SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTEMAILRATING

By LEONARD MUTINDA lmutinda@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, July 2  2012 at  21:34

Lawyers have asked President Kibaki to reject proposed amendments to four laws.

The proposed changes to the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Act, 2011, Magistrates Act, Advocates Act and Political Parties Act, 2011 were unconstitutional, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said on Monday.

The changes are in the Miscellaneous Amendment Bill, 2012, that was passed by Parliament last week.

President Kibaki refused to assent to the Bill solely based on a contentious amendment to allow for party-hopping in the Political Parties Act.

In his rejection of the Bill, the President said the proposed amendment were already the subject of pending court cases.

The LSK is, however, asking the President to reject the Bill in totality, noting that the proposed amendments were equally contentious.

In a memorandum presented to Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa, LSK noted that the changes to the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Act to allow for the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to vet magistrates went against the spirit and letter of the Constitution.

It further observed that the move to confer such a mandate to the judicial employer would scuttle the ongoing reforms in the Judiciary.

Share This Story

Share 

“If Kenyans wanted the JSC to vet the judges and magistrates, they would have expressly said so as they had already created JSC when the Constitution was written,” LSK argued.

The memorandum also warned that the inclusion of JSC in the vetting of magistrates would be a conflict of interest as some of its members were magistrates.

Speaking last week during a stakeholders’ workshop, LSK chairman Eric Mutua said the move to loop in the judicial employer in the vetting process was engineered by members of the JSC who were not comfortable with the work of the vetting board.

LSK also took issue with the proposed amendments to the Magistrates Act that seek to increase the monetary cap of cases to be presided over by several cadres of magistrates.

The lawyers opposed the conversion of the Advocates Disciplinary Committee into a tribunal, saying the move would cost the taxpayer. Mr Wamalwa promised to take up the matter and give feedback in a fortnight.