City Lawyer Danstan Omari has called upon all advocates in Kenya not to appear before the Supreme Court in solidarity with their colleague Senior Counsel Ahmenasir Abdullahi.
While speaking to Court Helicopter, Omari called upon all the advocates to boycott the apex court saying the decision to bar Ahmednasir was illegal.
“As an advocate of the high court, I am calling upon the 15,000 practising advocates, none should appear before the supreme court, if all advocates fail to appear before supreme court in solidarity with Ahemdnasir then no proceedings will be in that court,” Omari said.
Omari said the decision by the Supreme court judges has a ripple effect because lower courts are going to chase advocates never to appear before them like the apex court has done.
“Thousands of advocates in this country are likely to be barred from any lower due to the supreme court decision and this creates a legal crisis,” he added.
Omari says some Judicial officers will chase advocates from their courts for flimsy reasons an example is “If a judge or magistrate does not like your dressing, he or she might ban you from their court.
He urged LSK to call all advocates in the whole country and tell them not to appear before the supreme court
Omari says article 47 of the constitution provides for fair administrative action and what the supreme court did is contrary to that.
He applauded LSK for going to the high court saying it’s the only court with the jurisdiction to ensure fair administrative action.
According the lawyer, Ahmednasir going to the East African Court of Justice is academic thus LSK moving to the high court is the right move as it’s the court with jurisdiction to protect the rules on natural justice and fair administrative action.
He argues that the supreme court never sat as a court to bar Ahmednasir, they sat as an administrative organ of the court and are subject to article 47.
Omari says that Ahmednasir was never heard or ever served with the complaints of the by the judges they unilaterally without his defence condemned him unheard.
“It acted outside its jurisdictional and judicial mandate which is to hear matters presented to them through pleadings there were no pleadings in the supreme court,” he said.
Further, he says no issues were framed by the supreme court for determination against Ahmednasir
“The supreme court and any other court have the mandate to debar an advocate from appearing before them and its happened in two jurisdictions, in India where the supreme court barred an advocate it was after contempt proceedings and the two lawyers were found to be in contempt,” Omari said.
However, Omari says in Kenyan scenario, Ahmenasir was debarred without any contempt proceedings before the supreme court.
City Lawyer Danstan Omari calls upon all advocates to boycott the Supreme Court in solidarity with Lawyer Ahmednasir
