Young Lawyers for Justice (YLJ) issued a list of demands to the government on Thursday, highlighting what they termed as an unprecedented attack on the judiciary, privacy violations, and the collapse of public systems.
In a statement from its chairperson, Njeri Maina, the Woman Representative of Kirinyaga County and a member of the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, criticized the government for defying court orders and attempting to undermine judicial independence.
''Kenya’s judiciary, enshrined in Article 160 of the Constitution, is under unprecedented attack. The executive’s wanton defiance of court orders, well-calculated attacks, intimidation, and coercion of judges grossly violate the independence of the judiciary. These instances are well documented and the information is publicly available for appreciation,'' YLJ stated.
According to YLJ, the actions by the Government of Kenya, headed by President William Ruto, amounted to a breach of the United Nations Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary (1985) and Article 26 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The lobby demanded that the government respect the doctrine of separation of powers and, by extension, the independence of the judiciary.
Abductions and Arbitrary Arrests
The group further took issue with the government over its failure to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance adopted under the Rome Statute in 2006.
This they alleged had granted the government the room to watch over cases of forced disappearances and abductions.
''We are calling on the government to respect the rule of law, unconditionally release all abductees, ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and prosecute perpetrators under the International Crimes Act (2008),'' they added.
Collapse of Public Systems
YLJ also criticized the government for the failure of Kenya’s education and healthcare systems, specifically highlighting the introduction of the new higher education funding model and the transition to the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).
''We are calling upon the government to expedite funding to institutions of higher learning, address the healthcare degradation, and employ the best interests policy approach,'' YLJ urged.
Over-taxation and Unemployment
The lobby called on the government to scrap all the punitive taxes imposed on the Kenyan people and adopt policies that would address the unemployment menace.
Data Privacy Violations
Further, the group challenged the government to respect Kenyans and avoid what they termed as enabling misuse of people's data by telcos to enable state surveillance and target perceived dissidents.
''The AI era creates new concerns on protection, violation, and breach of first user data collectors. There have been informed allegations, that local service providers are enabling misuse of telecom data to enable state surveillance and target perceived dissidents. This violates Article 31 of the COK, (2010)section 43 of Kenya’s Data Protection Act (2019), and Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.''
