Uhuru Stares at another Judicial Battle after BBI Ruling

President Uhuru Kenyatta is staring at another court battle, a week after landmark BBI court ruling. Even as Uhuru plans to oversee the official takeover of Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) by the military, there is an existing restraint order from the court.

A prevailing court order quashed the transfer of KMC from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Defense. The Court described the president’s move as unconstitutional and directed him to return KMC back to the agriculture ministry.

President Uhuru transferred KMC from agriculture ministry to that one of defense in an Executive Order number 3 of 2020. 

A High Court decree on February 2021 revealed the absence of public participation as articulated in Article 10 of the Constitution of Kenya. The court considered the already effected budget allocated from the Agriculture Ministry to the Defense Ministry and gave the government 90 days to reverse the changes.

Law Society of Kenya (LSK) had moved to court to challenge the president’s decision. In a rebuttal, the Attorney General’s office sought to overturn the High Court ruling and filed a notice of appeal. The AG argued that the transfer was already effected as demonstrated in the administrative functions and the order to reverse will paralyze the operations of KMC.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has been accused of ignoring court orders, in what has put him on a collision course with the judiciary. BBI ruling put the president on spot after he was linked as the promoter of the constitutional amendment initiative. 

The AG has already filed an appeal application seeking to resuscitate BBI. Interesting times ahead, as the judiciary stamps its authority against Uhuru’s vengeance coined in “we shall revisit,” a phrase that was hyped after the Supreme Court nullified 2017 presidential elections.

The former Chief Justice David Maraga led a Judiciary that sustained grim confutation from the Executive, which influenced the Legislator to initiate a budget cut on the Judiciary. The President would later refuse to appoint additional judges.

Unconfirmed sources allege that the Executive largely influenced the nomination of Martha Koome as the Chief Justice of Kenya. Fred Ngatia, who happened to be one of the CJ’s candidates, complained how the last minute call suppressed his ambitions to be a Chief Justice.

The allegations might be true because BBI team consider filing their appeal application at the Supreme Court, and not the Court of Appeal.