Gov't, Opposition not keen on implementing Constitution - Former CJ Willy Mutunga

Former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga is of the opinion that neither the ruling Kenya Kwanza government nor the Raila Odinga-led opposition is keen on upholding and respecting Kenya's Constitution.

In an interview on Citizen TV's JKLive Show on Wednesday, Mutunga expressed amazement at how authorities allegedly and formally accuse persons of crimes without aligning the charges to the Constitution.

"It's amazing how the police charge people with laws that are unconstitutional. They don't even have the mind to align those statutes with the Constitution because it is supreme," said Mutunga.

The former CJ added that despite the state having official legal authorities such as the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions and Interior CS Prof. Kithure Kindiki, none of them have intervened and directed Inspector General Japheth Koome to follow the law in dealing with protesters.

"It's something I thought the AG, the DPP and the Internal CS, who is a Professor of Law (would bring up) but I don't know where they studied their law. They should be the ones who are telling Koome that Article 37 has to be implemented this way," he said.

Mutunga went on to accuse Kindiki of occasionally “play-acting” when it comes to implementing and enforcing the law.

"Kindiki has been very conflictional; sometimes he's stating the law properly and then he becomes a person who is not following the law and is threatening people. I think the tragedy of this country is that we don't have a government or opposition that is keen on implementing the Constitution," he said.

To further push his point across, Mutunga added that both members of the current regime and the opposition rarely respect court orders.

"You remember when President Ruto came in, we were all very happy, your friend Miguna came back and the judges were sworn in," Mutunga told show host Jeff Koinange.

"The Port was returned to Mombasa and we applauded but thereafter the issue of CAS'. The President and his government should realise that actually disobeying court orders is subverting the Constitution and again even if you hate somebody in this country, they have rights. We have a beautiful baby called the Constitution but we have given it to child traffickers."