The Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) has denied claims that its detectives raided lawyer John Khaminwa’s offices yesterday.
In the reports that went viral on Saturday, it was reported that EACC offices had visited the Senior Counsel’s offices following his hard stance on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a product of the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
But EACC in a brief statement on Sunday trashed the reports as misleading.
“EACC wishes to notify the public that it did not conduct any operation yesterday and media reports suggesting that EACC visited the offices of John Khaminwa Senior Counsel are unfounded,” the Twalib Mbarak-led commission tweeted on Sunday morning.
EACC wishes to notify the public that it did not conduct any operation yesterday and media reports suggesting that EACC visited the offices of John Khaminwa Senior Counsel are unfounded.
— EACC (@EACCKenya) July 4, 2021
The seasoned lawyer had on Saturday also said that he was not convinced that the people who visited his office were EACC officials but frauds.
Read: BBI Secretariat to Appeal Ruling Declaring Bill Unconstitutional
“They claimed to be police officers on duty but I did not get the impression that they were officers at all. They asked for money but we did not give them,” Khaminwa stated but asked the government to protect lawyers and judicial officers handling the BBI case.
Khaminwa was one of the battery of lawyers who made an appearance at the court of Appeal for the hearing on the BBI case on Friday.
He asked the court to dismiss the Head of State’s case challenging a decision of the High Court to declare BBI unconstitutional on grounds that he has been disrespectful to the courts.
The advocate, in particular, took issue with President Kenyatta’s refusal to appoint six judges including two to the Court of Appeal who dismissed the BBI process, dealing a blow to the Head of State’s bid to amend the 2010 Constitution.
Read Also: BBI Process Is Unlawful, Constitutional Court Rules
The two Judges who had been recommended for a promotion to the Appellate court by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) are Justices Professor Joel Ngugi and George Odunga.
“The orders that were made by the Court of Appeal must stand. He has deliberately refused to swear-in judges. It is my humble submission that when one is coming before a court, you cannot despise a judge and at the same time appear before one and expect that judge to give you orders,” he said.
“When you have a President who is demeaning judges before the public, this court must stand firm and say to him no we shall not hear you.”
The lawyer stated that those who appear before the courts should come with ‘clean hands’.
Read Also: Raila Odinga: BBI Is Not My Shortcut To State House
“When we appear before your lordships we come with tremendous humility, we speak politely to you, we praise you. That praising and humility and that courtesy that we extend to the court is not for you personally but for the good of the entire country to get our people to continue to have confidence in our Judiciary and in the administration of justice in our country,” he said.
BBI was declared unconstitutional, null and void in May.
In a scathing ruling, five High Court judges ruled that President Kenyatta had violated the constitution by initiating a process which ought to have been started by ordinary citizens “Wanjiku”.
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