[Photo/ KBC TV]
The Law Society of Kenya, a once non-partisan group of professional lawyers, has been behaving strangely in the recent past. Instead of rooting for the rule of law and defending the constitution, the group, which many Kenyans used to respect, has started behaving as a branch of the Opposition. When Jubilee leaders cautioned the Judiciary to be aware of the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition’s plans to use courts to cripple IEBC and sabotage the election process, the elected representatives of lawyers came out swinging, accusing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his team of attempting to interfere with the operations of the other arm of government. Nothing could be further from the truth about that claim, but that is a story for another day. LSK, whose leaders never miss a chance to have their voice heard whenever legal matters make it to the headlines, was dead silent when the Raila Odinga-led Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) attacked the Supreme Court after losing the 2013 presidential petition. Attempts to intimidate the judges of the highest court in the land continued for years after the ruling. A few months ago, when NASA demanded that Court of Appeal rules in their favor on the issue of a national tallying centre and presidential election results at the constituency level, the good lawyers at LSK issued no statement. As State House official Dennis Itumbi has noted, the group did not issue any statement to condemn demos by NASA leaders and their supporters to illegally remove the IEBC commissioners from office. Kenyans are beginning to see LSK’s hypocrisy, and they are not shy to point that out. “When Raila Odinga accused military, NIS and police nobody talked about it,” says Cyrus Munyeki, referring to the instances that the NASA flag-bearer was not questioned by LSK despite attacking non-political bodies. “CJ Maraga constitutes a 3-judge bench to listen to the Presidential votes-tallying case. And he assigns Justice Ouko as the presiding Judge. Justice William Ouko is husband to Ida Odinga's sister,” says Dan Muhia. “Maraga constitutes another 3-judge bench to listen to the ballots printing tender case and allocates Justice Odunga the role of a presiding Judge. Odunga is Orengo's relative. And you think the President is castigating the Judiciary falsely?” Muhia adds. Laboso Rolex says in a Facebook post: “LSK is a puppet and it has lost its credibility. High courts has displayed biased.” One wonders where LSK has finally found a voice to criticize the Judiciary. As others have asked, is LSK the new voice of NASA?