Law Society of Kenya has suffered a blow in its quest to deregister Attorney General Paul Kihara and Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto from list of Lawyers of the High Court of Kenya.
The two senior members of the Executive can breathe easy after their expulsion from the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) was halted by the court.
Justice John Mativo in a ruling on June 25, granted stay orders sought by the AG in the matter effectively stopping their removal from the society initiated by its President Nelson Havi, and giving them more time to respond to the charges levelled against them.
"The applicants are hereby granted leave to institute judicial review proceedings of the chamber.
"The leave granted shall operate as a stay of the intended expulsion proceedings against the applicants as the Ordinary General Meeting of the Law Society of Kenya scheduled for July 23, 2020, or of any other related action founded on the Respondents' Notice of Motion dated June 12, 2020, or on any other reasons therein," the ruling read in part.
Justice Mativo's stay order will, therefore, allow Kihara and Ogeto to file appropriate supplementary affidavit within 10 days from the date of service together with their submissions.
He further directed the AG to file and serve the substantive application with five days for the ruling while the LSK was ordered to file and serve their reply to the application within 10 days.
AG Kihara and Ogeto were on June 12, given notice of their intended expulsion from the LSK at the Annual General Meeting on 23rd July.
In the document, the society's counsel faulted AG Kihara's conduct in the failure to swear in the 41 nominated judges stating that his advice to the president amounted to gross misconduct and subverted the rule of law.
Chief Justice David Maraga made the matter public by lamenting over frustration by the Executive adding that the delay was undermining the functions of the Judiciary.
"The President's disregard of court orders doesn't bode well for our constitutional democracy and is potentially a recipe for anarchy," Maraga said.
The legal society also raised concern over Judicial officials who are allegedly aligned with the Executive and are being used to manipulate the constitution in favour of the government.
"It is just, lawful and proper that AG Kihara and the Solicitor General be expelled from the membership of the LSK as they have brought ridicule, shame, disrepute and dishonour to the office of an advocate and a member of the LSK," the society noted.
While responding to the Solicitor General's response, the LSK on June 25, stated that the two would be given an opportunity to set out their cases against the motion of their removal.
"The motion shall be read out and interventions on it taken from a member of the LSK. Each of you will be given 20 minutes to submit in person or through a legal representative, physically (at the Law Society's offices) or by a video link," read a notice that has since been overruled by the court's decision.
