Mr Speaker sir, obeying court orders is not optional at all

By Judy Thongori

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This goes to the Speaker and Members of Parliament; Kenyan families have become increasingly concerned that as you engage on whether to obey court orders or not, the nation is slowly sinking into a state of chaos. Two experiences last week have led me towards that conclusion.

I was sitting outside the children’s court one morning last week and a man that I had never met asked to speak to me. He said he had been summoned by the court because he had not paid maintenance for his children; that he did not want to pay the money because the mother of the children had left him.

 As I helped him understand the consequences of refusal to obey a court order, a colleague next to us who overheard the conversation drew our attention to an item in the newspaper describing the Speaker of the National Assembly as having said that Parliament will not honour “idiotic and silly court rulings”. He was also quoted as saying that “we want to respect court orders and we have respected very many, but I do not understand how we are to obey every order, however idiotic and unconstitutional”.

In the face of the above item, the man’s attention to my advice disappeared and he asked to borrow the newspaper and read the item for himself. He moved off to a corner to read the article undisturbed.

It occurred to me that the call for increased judges in the Family Court will not help if court orders will be treated as the Speaker had stated. That it is not the number of court orders that will ensure fidelity to the law but the attitude to those orders.

The second incident is the impunity demonstrated by blockage of roads by public service vehicles last week. The traffic was frustrating, but it was the impunity that was scandalous. My take is that such impunity can only be compared to the action of lawmakers when they decide to not only disobey court orders but also to say that such orders are “idiotic”. Our dear leaders, may I remind you what one of you, Senator Otieno Kajwang used to say, “fish rots from the head”.

As the lawmakers, you are a significant part of the head of this country; your disregard of court orders has started to creep down to us and we are worried.

We are worried because no society ever moved forward without adherence to the rule of law; the rule of law implies that every citizen is subject to the law, including lawmakers themselves. The Judiciary is one of the three arms of governance. The judges may not be right at all times just as you honourable members, may not always be. But no one else can sit where the judge sits in making a decision; he is constitutionally empowered. 

The procedure for disagreeing with a judges’s order is set out by yourselves through the relevant laws.; it is to appeal such decisions.

But the Speaker’s use of the words “idiotic and silly” in respect to court rulings cannot surely be fair. In their simple English meaning, those words could mean “foolish and stupid”.

Friends, fidelity to court decisions is not a choice. It is a requirement of the Constitution that you have chosen to defend. The reason for it is not the protection of judges but for the protection of the public and of the institution of the Judiciary.

How else will a husband agree to share land or money with his wife unless he believes that courts have authority to make such decisions?

I want to end by reminding us of the year 2013 when the presidential elections were disputed. This country looked unto the Judiciary to resolve the dispute wisely and fairy; whether this country lived or not depended on the Supreme Court. 

Mr Speaker, we do not know what happens in the next elections in about four years. What we know is that we do not want a repeat of the 2007/8 chaos when we were told the fight for political power was taken to the streets because the courts could not be trusted. We do not want to ever have a repeat of what happened to our families; the deaths, the rapes, the loss of property.

We want all people to look to one place for decision-making, should there be a dispute – the court. We do not want people saying as you have been reported to have said Mr Speaker that they do not understand how they have to obey every order, however idiotic and unconstitutional. That will be the day our country goes up in smoke, Mr Speaker!