Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Faith Odhiambo has stated that the society disagrees with a High Court ruling which upheld the deployment of KDF officers to contain protests.
In a statement on Thursday, June 27, Odhiambo noted that the deployment was made in haste and fell short of guidelines that guide the stationing of the military.
"The judge in his ruling agreed with our arguments that the deployment fell short of the rigorous stipulations of Article 241 and relevant provisions of the Kenya Defense Forces Act.
"The Law Society of Kenya respects but disagrees with the ruling of the court. Whereas article 241(3) contemplates deployment of the military where there is instability, unrest and situations of emergency, it is an incurably dangerous precedent for the threshold to be interpreted as being as low as the position taken by the court in today's ruling," Odhiambo stated.
The LSK president maintained that LSK will wait for a full ruling before deciding on the next course of action.
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"We respectfully disagree with the court. We also express our reservations in the delay by the court to issue the full reasoned version in order to enable us to evaluate the options available to the Law Society. We commit to consider the written ruling and take the next course of action in defense of the Constitution and the rule of law," she remarked.
In his ruling on Thursday, after LSK filed a petition seeking to halt the deployment, Justice Lawrence Mugambi stated that the deployment was necessary in view of the need to preserve peace and public safety.
"The intervention of the military in supporting National Police necessary in view of the need to preserve order, peace, public safety and critical infrastructure as it was in conformity with the Constitution and the relevant statute and was properly invoked," Mugambi ruled.
He directed that the military terms of engagement and duration be clearly defined and gazetted within two to alleviate public fear.
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