Courts must punish Executive mischief

Attorney General Kihara Kariuki has launched an appeal to save DCI George Kinoti from serving a four-month jail sentence for disobeying a court decision in which he was ordered to hand back guns illegally seized from the home of politician Jimi Wanjigi.

On Friday, Judge Anthony Mrima declined to suspend the order and will today decide Kinoti's fate.

The judge must weigh carefully the impact his decision will have on the administration of justice and, in particular, the place of an Executive notorious for defying court orders.

The courts are not an appendage of the Executive. The Executive does not have the luxury of picking what to obey and what to defy. All orders must be obeyed. There are no two ways about it.

The very administration Kihara represents has repeatedly and arrogantly declined to obey court orders in relation to the return of banished lawyer Miguna Miguna.

The Executive’s decisions have lamentably undermined the authority of the Judiciary. When a country throws the rule of law out of the window, there is only one alternative – anarchy.

High-ranking members of the Executive lecture the public at funerals and public forums on how they preside over a country governed by the rule of law.

But their arrogant duplicity, time and again, confirms to the very public, that they mean none of the high sounding ideals they feign to espouse.

The courts must be firm otherwise the Executive will ruin the very foundation of law and order.

Quote of the Day: “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

C S Lewis

The British writer and theologian was born on November 29, 1898