• Aluochier said that the president was wrong to formulate the BBI steering committee.
• The litigant said that while formulating the BBI steering committee, the president said in the gazette notice that he was acting in his official capacity as the president.
Image: CHARLENE MALWA
Litigant Isaac Aluochier on Friday expressed his displeasure over what he termed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s contempt of court on several occasions.
Making his submissions before the Court of Appeal during the fourth and last day of the BBI hearing, Aluochier said that the president was wrong to formulate the BBI steering committee.
The litigant said that while formulating the BBI steering committee, the president said in the gazette notice that he was acting in his official capacity as the president.
“There is no authority granted by the Constitution to the President to establish an organistion or an entity that deals with the Constitution change, that is an act of Parliament. He was acting beyond his jurisdiction…consequently, he was not performing official presidential functions, he was performing his private business.”
Aluochier argued that Uhuru, who is the appellant in the case, cannot be easily accessed to be served with court papers.
“When the president was touring in the company of Senior Council Senator James Orengo, he was saying, watanipata wapi wanipatie makaratasi zao za kortini, watanipata wapi (where will they get me to serve me with court papers)” of course, if you go and barricade yourself in State House, an ordinary Kenyan like myself, I cannot penetrate because the security is going to stop me,” Aluochier said.
He said that the country has come from the days of darkness and that Uhuru is trying to take the country back to those dark days.
“Appellant Uhuru knows these things. It's not that he doesn’t know, it’s only that he plays hardball. That’s basically what he is doing…I am not surprised that he is behaving this way because that is his nature.”
Aluochier added that it is not the first time that Uhuru has contravened Chapter 6 of the Constitution, alleging it started in 2012 when he was the Deputy Prime Minister and at the same time an official in the Kanu party.
“There is a Chapter 6 contravention holding against appellant Uhuru even today. These issues were even raised to IEBC before the 2013 General Election; IEBC just ignored them, maybe they feared the appellant Uhuru, and appellant Uhuru is now the president though if the law would have been followed, Uhuru would never have been the president.”
He added that Uhuru is the subject of Kenyans, who are the sovereign of Kenya, who delegated the power to him.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta is our employee, we are the ones paying his salary. We are the ones appointing him. We are the ones delegating our powers to him. He is our employee, maybe our most senior employee but our employee and when he goes off the rails, we come here to discipline him.”
Aluochier added, “We just wanted to drive on one point, appellant Uhuru, as the President of this country, please obey the law. Stop disregarding this Katiba of ours, especially when you are the number one citizen of this country."
"You took the oath to obey, respect, uphold, and defend this Constitution of Kenya. And you are not doing it. Instead, you are the one leading the process of amending and tearing apart this Katiba of ours, and these are the things that annoy me as a Kenyan.”