OPINION: LSK President should not serve in a government parastatal or task force

OPINION: LSK President should not serve in a government parastatal or task force

ADVOCATE PETER WANYAMA

For doctrinal, functional, and perception reasons- Law Society of Kenya President should not sit in an active government parastatal or Task Force especially one that is housed in the President's Office.

Another lawyer should. Let me ask just to point out one issue for context. It is not debatable that the Mutua-led Task Force openly usurps the mandate of KNCHR.

LSK ought to challenge this in court as part of its statutory mandate. Certainly, when the President of LSK accepts to serve in the amorphous Task Force- it compromises the suitability of LSK as the Petitioner in Court. 

Some lawyers are going at great lengths to justify the appointment but fail to appreciate the basics. Simply put, you can’t have your cake and eat it.

Consistency is also important.  Last year, the President of LSK rejected a similar presidential appointment for the probably the same reason. What has changed? 

But I don’t agree with the decision of the media to headline the issue by using a very old photo of an official LSK Council visit to State House- looks like an ad-hominem attack. Not objective. Spiteful.

I agree with majority of the lawyers. LSK President should not serve in a government parastatal or task force. It heavily compromises the ability of the LSK President to discharge functions of LSK in section 4 of the Act.

You can’t check the government and protect the public from its tentacles when you are busy collecting cheques from the same government.

There are many pro-government lawyers that the President can pick to join the Task Force but not the LSK President.  The LSK President should urgently resign from the Mutua-led Task Force before it is too late.

For example, LSK should have already issued a statement to say that formation of the Task is unnecessary because already statute confers Kenya National Commission on Human Rights with mandate to investigate human rights abuses and compensate victims. Why duplicate efforts?