Speaker tells Chief Justice to stop supporting street activism

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi yesterday asked Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to promote law and order and stop street civil society activism.

He said the tweet by Mutunga to support the opposition rally to eject IEBC commissioners from office on Monday and calling it peaceful, was wrong. Muturi said the demonstrations were not peaceful.

"We saw what happened when idlers (opposition) were breaking gates to access the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is a clear indication of their planned violence and someone was tweeting to tell us the demonstrations were peaceful," the Speaker said. Muturi's remarks against Mutunga comes after the Chief Justice tweeted twice in support of the Cord demonstration. Cord was protesting to have IEBC commissioners removed from office, claiming the agency is not independent to conduct next year's general elections. "Faulkner's quote is my very painful reflection that tear-gassing of peaceful demonstrations has not been our past since our independence! The past is never dead. The past is never dead. It's not even past. -William Faulkner," Mutunga tweeted while quoting an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate William Cuthbert Faulkne.

His tweet called on police to stop using excessive force and teargas against peaceful opposition demonstrators.

"Why does Mutunga have guards! Mutunga should understand the constitution and support it instead of misleading Kenyans," Muturi said.

The Speaker referred to Cord as "idlers", saying the law is clear on the process of removing an IEBC commissioner. He said the removal of an IEBC commissioner requires a motion to be passed by a simple majority in Parliament.

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