Ruto bullying Judiciary to obtain stay orders on Finance Act, LSK President Theuri claims

Speaking on Citizen TV’s Daybreak Show on Wednesday, the LSK president claimed that the executive arm of government was fond of bullying its way through the Judiciary to alter the determination of pending court cases.

According to Theuri, President Ruto wants the court to grant the executive a stay on the Finance Act as the parliament proceeds with passing the Act to legalise it as previously ordered by the court, with a long-term goal of ensuring Housing Levy is continually collected without the high court halting the process.

“They are implementing the high court decision by coming up with a bill but going to the court of appeal to seek a stay. The intention is to ensure that there is no intergram in the Ksh.4 billion that is being collected,” he said.

“I have a problem because you are going to get a stay, then you pass an Act in parliament when you have a stay order so that when the Act is passed, you can say, we will leave the Finance Act legislation because that is being challenged and there is a stay in the court of Appeal, and continue with the new Act that will have been passed."

He added: “That is the mischief on the part of government…it is an actual clear abuse of court process and that is why  the president is coming out guns blazing accusing the judiciary of corruption.”

Theuri went on to maintain that the president’s sustained utterances on wanting to end graft in the courts are not genuine, opining that most institutions in the country are corrupt in the public's eye.

“Is the complaint by the executive that we have a rogue and corrupt Judiciary or is the complaint by the executive that critical government projects are being stopped,” he said.

“It is easy to accuse the judiciary because every institution is corrupt…in the court of public opinion, people will always believe the institution to be corrupt.”

Lawyer Theuri, who insists he had warned the executive before the implementation of the Finance Act, faulted the government for not complying with his constitutional guidelines thus their demands now contravene the country’s laws.

“Before the Finance Act was enacted, there was an attempt to have a discussion between us and the government agency implementing the Housing Levy and we told them the manner in which they were proposing to enact it was clearly unconstitutional,” he said.

“ The president is bullying the Judiciary to give him an order of stay pending the hearing and determination of the case in the court of appeal yet they have already started action to implement what the high court told them is wrong with the law what we told them was wrong when they inacted it.”

At the same time, he accused the President of having unlawfully influenced similar ongoing cases such as the Mumias Sugar case where he (Ruto) allegedly threatened lawyers and subsequently had the courts doing his bidding.

“In the case of Mumias Sugar, the president threatened all those who have cases against Mumias Sugar to withdraw them. I know advocates who were harassed, intimidated, every time they were coming or going out of the country they would be stopped for no reason,” he claimed.

“I know others who we even had to fight and put in protective custody because they were concerned against their safety and they all had to file notices of withdrawal of all those cases in court. We have seen the executive busing his authority to settle cases that are before the court.”