Court denies request to form bench in KDF deployment case
Justice Lawrence Mugambi dismissed LSK’s request for the case to be handled by a three-judge bench.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has suffered a setback in its attempt to challenge the deployment of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) during the Finance Bill protests in June last year.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi dismissed LSK’s request for the case to be handled by a three-judge bench, stating that the society had failed to meet the legal criteria necessary for such an empanelment.
Consequently, the court declined to forward the matter to Chief Justice Martha Koome for the formation of a special bench to preside over the petition.
Justice Mugambi ruled that although the concerns raised were significant, they did not involve intricate constitutional matters requiring adjudication by a multi-judge bench.
"The petitioners, the Law Society of Kenya, have not shown that the case involves extraordinary circumstances or substantial constitutional issues that would necessitate empaneling a three-judge bench. As such, the application is dismissed for lacking merit," he concluded.
In its legal submission, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) contended that the deployment was in violation of the constitution, emphasizing that no state of emergency or significant security risk existed to warrant the military’s involvement in civilian affairs.
"This was a matter that should have been managed by the police, not the military. The military's involvement in this situation creates a risky precedent," LSK stated in its petition.