Court to rule on legality of KDF deployment on Thursday
![Court to rule on legality of KDF deployment on Thursday Court to rule on legality of KDF deployment on Thursday](https://citizentv.obs.af-south-1.myhuaweicloud.com/126606/conversions/faith-odhiambo-og_image.webp)
LSK President Faith Odhiambo in a Citizen TV interview on June 16, 2024.
The court ordered parties in the case to appear virtually for a brief hearing in the petition pitting the LSK against the State and the Defence Cabinet Secretary.
In documents filed in court, LSK says that no state of emergency under
Article 58 of the Constitution has been declared by President William Ruto in exercising
his constitutional mandate under Article 132 (4) (d) of the Constitution.
“No emergency, disaster, insecurity, unrest
or instability has been officially declared to exist in Kenya, and to be
outside the mandate, scope or capacity of the National Police or any other
authority to warrant the deployment of the KDF to provide support to the
National Police in the manner envisaged in the Impugned Gazette Notice,"
reads the petition.
They say that the Tuesday Gazette notice by
Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale is contrary to the Constitution and poses
a huge threat of violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of many
Kenyans who may wish to exercise their right to peacefully protest within the
confines of the Constitution and the law.
“Indeed, many Kenyans, especially youth
between the ages of 18 to 35 are outraged by the current state of public
finance management in the country and the government’s proclivity towards
increasing taxes to fund its spending.
“As such, the youth have organised
themselves and hundreds of thousands across the Country have turned up to carry
out peaceful protests calling for the rejection of the Finance Bill 2024 is a
demonstration of their frustration with the Government,” they argue.
It is their argument that the deployment is
illegal and unconstitutional.
“What makes the move illegal and
unconstitutional move clearly unprecedented is that save for the military coup
in the year 1982, no other time in the history of our Republic has there ever
been a carte blanche deployment of the military for purposes of supporting the
National Police during civilian demonstrations,” LSK says.
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