Kenya Law Reform Commission (KLRC) yesterday questioned the constitutionality of the recently amended law that grants the President the sole mandate to determine the appointment of the Chief Justice and his deputy.
The State body, charged with the responsibility of drafting government bills and proposing changes to the law, said it was not consulted over the decision by the National Assembly to make the amendments.
KLRC said if Parliament undertook the amendments without concurrence with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), then they remain unconstitutional.
“We are concerned over whether there was enough public participation, though if JSC and the Attorney General own up on the matter and admit that they played a role, then the matter is well within the Constitution,” said the chairman, Mbage Ng’ang’a.
The amendment gives the President and the National Assembly powers to appoint the Chief Justice and his deputy, a move which the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) is now challenging in court. LSK argues that it is unconstitutional since it takes away the independence of Judiciary.
The constitution in Article 166 states that the President shall appoint the Chief Justice and the Deputy Chief Justice, in accordance with the recommendation of the JSC, and subject to the approval of the National Assembly.
LSK further argues that the amendments which were contained in the Statutes Law (amendment) Bill, 2015 and assented to by the President in December last year did not have public participation. Chief Justice Mutunga, the first CJ under the New Constitution, could soon see his succession involve a recruitment process that invites the President back to appointing the CJ.
In the new law, the commission’s secretary will be required to submit three names of the nominees to the President to pick one name from the list for consideration and approval by the National Assembly.
If the House disapproves the nomination of such a candidate, the president will forward another name from the pool of names submitted by the JSC and when all three are rejected, the commission will undertake a new recruitment.
The post New CJ hiring law illegal, says KLRC appeared first on Mediamax Network Limited.