Kenyan lawyers Friday demonstrated peacefully in Nairobi against what they say is judicial interference by\u00a0President William Ruto, who has said he will disregard court orders from allegedly corrupt judges blocking his key development projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent days, Ruto has also repeatedly threatened to remove judges he accuses of teaming up with his political rivals to frustrate his attempts to address unemployment in\u00a0Kenya\u00a0and provide affordable housing and universal health care. But the head of state has not produced any evidence to back his claims that some judges are corrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dAs lawyers we will stand firm to tell the president that you are not above the law, you must respect the law,\u201d said lawyer Peter Wanyama, who was among some 200 lawyers who staged the march, blowing whistles and waving placards through the streets and ending up in the office of the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ruto\u2019s projects have become unpopular partly due to the fact the government is\u00a0levying more taxes to fund them\u00a0at a time when Kenyans are experiencing increases in the cost of living. An increase in fuel taxes that Ruto says is necessary for the country not to default on paying public debt has been particularly painful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want to tell parliament, the speaker and leader of majority that you can\u2019t pass unconstitutional laws that burden Kenyans and then you want the judiciary to protect it,\u201d Wanyama said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The High Court ruled that a housing fund meant to finance the building of 200,000 affordable homes a year is unconstitutional and stopped the government from charging 1.5% from each salaried worker to fund it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The courts have also put on hold the Social Health Insurance Act the government planned to fund by taxing salaried employees 2.75%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramadhan Abubakar, vice president of the East Africa Law Society, said Ruto\u2019s remarks about the credibility of judges have the unintended consequence of eroding confidence in the judicial system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kenyan lawyers Friday demonstrated peacefully in Nairobi against what they say is judicial interference by\u00a0President William Ruto, who has said he will disregard court orders from allegedly corrupt judges blocking his key development projects. In recent days, Ruto has also repeatedly threatened to remove judges he accuses of teaming up with his political rivals to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,15],"tags":[7,30,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-38473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-culture","11":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n