Chief Justice Maraga ruling in which he advised president Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve parliament has come under attack by the chief stalwart of the Building Bridges Initiative propaganda, Mr. Raila Odinga. This follows Justice Maraga’s decision to follow the constitution by ordering the president to dissolve parliament due to the National Assembly’s failure to enact the two thirds gender rule as stipulated in the Kenyan Constitution.
“The advisory by the Chief Justice Maraga to the President to dissolve the Houses of Parliament has placed the country and the people of Kenya in a precarious constitutional and political situation that will require careful deliberation before any action is taken”, said Raila Odinga.
Whereas the ODM party leader has been in politics for more than half a century, he needs to be reminded that the constitution does not require decisions made by Justice Maraga to face any deliberations or consultations. Raila Odinga just has issues with the Judiciary boss’ decision since if followed, it will scattle Mr. Odinga’s bullshit BBI propaganda. If Uhuru Kenyatta indeed dissolves parliament, by default, a by-election will be called and all MPs will need to face an election within 60 days.
Parliamentary elections in 2020 will effectively kill BBI and the associated referendum all together. The country is waiting to see what decision the president makes. Will he obey the other arm of goverment (the judiciary) and dissolve parliament or will Uhuru Kenyatta go rogue and disrespect Mr. Maraga advise?
More than likely, the president will just ignore Maraga. There is no opposition in Kenya anyway so nobody will make much noise. Even the MPs are against Maraga as the Chief Justice’s decision caught them off-guard and unprepared to campaign for re-election. Mr. Kenyatta may also have a motivation to show Mr. Maraga the middle finger by delaying until the Chief Justice retires within three months.
The constitution just says the Chief Justice shall advice the president but the supreme book does not stipulate a timeline in which the president should respond to the advise
Raila Odinga’s post in Facebook is quite misleading. He does not even say what ramifications the country will suffer if Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta actually dissolves parliament. At the back of Raila Odinga’s mind, the only cons of dissolving parliament is that more attention will be focused on the parliamentary by-elections as every MP will scramble to retain their seat.
This means, more “oxygen” and attention will be focused on that and less on the BBI and the referendum. Raila Odinga wanted all attention to focus on his proverbial “Reggae”. But it looks like Maraga has stopped the reggae once and for all with just a stroke of a pen.
If the president listens to Raila Odinga and decides to ignore Justice Maraga in order to save their BBI, these politicians should know that Mr. Maraga can actually kill the Building Bridges Initiative by just siding with the lawsuit that was filed by David Ndii, Kalwalhe et al. The legal challenge against BBI is still pending. So If Maraga’s intention was to send Uhuru Kenyatta into indefinite retirement, he has another option to do so.
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