Kenya’s Parliamentary Service Commission says it will move to court to challenge Chief Justice David Maraga’s advice to President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve Parliament.
The National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi who also serves as the PSC chair on Tuesday faulted the Chief Justice terming the advisory as unlawful and unconstitutional.
“The commission regrets that the Chief Justice appears to be willing, even eager to plunge the country into a constitutional crisis without exercising the wisdom and circumspection that is expected of the high office he holds,” he said
“As PSC, we have this morning agreed to move to the high court to challenge the decision of the CJ in advising the president to dissolve parliament. It is our considered view that the decision was incongruous with other efforts being made to address the issue.”
"The Commission has taken the firm position that the action by the Chief Justice to advice the President as aforesaid is ill advised, premature and unconstitutional and is a recipe for plunging the country into a constitutional crisis of monumental proportions"
@SpeakerJBMuturi— National Assembly KE (@NAssemblyKE) September 22, 2020
“We must not lose sight of the real challenges in implementing this matter and turn Parliament into a punching bag on account of gender parity,” Muturi said in a statement on Monday.
On Monday, the CJ advised President Kenyatta to dissolve Parliament over its failure to enact legislation required to implement the two-thirds gender rule.
According to Maraga, the Supreme Court under former CJ Willy Mutunga had directed Parliament to enact the requisite legislation by August 27, 2015.
However, PSC says, “The Honourable Chief Justice glossed over the fact that there are two High Court petitions set for hearing on 7th October 2020 to determine, among other issues, whether the order made by Justice Mativo on 29th March 2017 during the tenure of the 11th Parliament is applicable to the 12th Parliament which was elected in August 2017. It is therefore premature for the Rt. Hon. Chief Justice to take this action while the High Court is yet to determine this matter.”
