Nelson Havi: Kenyans should act if the courts fail to deal with obvious problems

The former Law Society of Kenya (LSK) president believes that Kenyans should seek alternative avenues to deal with matters that have been underwhelmingly addressed by the courts and the leadership.

Havi noted that there are stark failures exhibited by the national leadership including the Bills being presented in Parliament that seeks to further strain a majority of the citizenry while favouring a few.

"Perhaps it is a mood the people of Kenya need to read. If the courts fail to provide solutions to obvious problems then they need to do something. They've done it before. They ensured that the Finance Bill 2024 did not see to its fruition," Havi told Citizen TV on Wednesday.

He questioned the integrity of the Supreme Court by how it has handled pertinent issues facing Kenyans that hold national importance, including the proposed tax deductions on the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) and the Housing Levy.

"If you find a failure occasioned by a party do you sanitize the actions of that party? The Supreme Court has impaired irreparably gains hitherto made in ensuring the dictates of the constitution that demand people's participation at every stage of legislation [are met]," he argued.

"They have identified the problem, they know the source of the problem but they permit the problem to prevail."

This lies on the backdrop of uproar from Kenyans against the newly-introduced laws passed by the National Assembly that seek to puncture the pockets of many Kenyans amid a crunched economy.

The High Court ruled on October 22 that the controversial housing levy introduced last year as part of measures to try to shore up public finances was lawful.

The verdict came after a previous court ruling had declared it illegal in November 2023. Kenyans have been remitting 1.5 per cent of their salaries and a similar amount from their employers.

Recently the controversial SHIF was introduced which will see Kenyans paying a monthly deduction of 2.75 per cent of their income with the base contribution being Ksh.300.

The transition to the new health scheme has however been muddled with controversy and uncertainty on how it will be enrolled.