Nairobi, September 21- The High Court has ruled that retired presidents retain their constitutional right to participate in political affairs after leaving office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Bahati Mwamuye, in a judgment delivered on Monday, September 21, declared unconstitutional provisions of the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act that restricted former presidents from holding political party positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge said leaving the presidency ends a former head of state\u2019s executive authority but does not take away their rights as citizens, including political rights guaranteed under the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Mwamuye declared Sections 4(1), 4(2), 4(3) and Section 6 of the Act unconstitutional and void. Section 6 had barred retired presidents from holding office in a political party for more than six months after leaving the presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case was filed by Sheria Mtaani and Shadrack Wambui, who challenged the provisions on grounds that they infringed on constitutional rights and could be used to interfere with the retirement benefits of former presidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court also ruled that retirement benefits protected under the Constitution could not be reduced or withdrawn through the challenged provisions because of a former president\u2019s political activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ruling comes a week after another High Court judgment upheld the same restriction on retired presidents holding political party leadership positions beyond six months after leaving office. Justice Lawrence Mugambi had found the restriction to be a reasonable limitation, citing the unique political influence associated with former heads of state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Mwamuye\u2019s decision therefore provides a different interpretation of the law, with the court distinguishing between the constitutional authority of a sitting president and the political rights of a former president as a private citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judgment was delivered virtually, with the court directing each party to meet its own legal costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nairobi, September 21- The High Court has ruled that retired presidents retain their constitutional right to participate in political affairs after leaving office. Justice Bahati Mwamuye, in a judgment delivered on Monday, September 21, declared unconstitutional provisions of the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act that restricted former presidents from holding political party positions. The judge said leaving the presidency ends a former head of state\u2019s executive authority but does not take away their rights as citizens, including political rights guaranteed under the Constitution. Justice Mwamuye declared Sections 4(1), 4(2), 4(3) and Section 6 of the Act unconstitutional and void. Section 6 had barred retired presidents from holding office in a political party for more than six months after leaving the presidency. The case was filed by Sheria Mtaani and Shadrack Wambui, who challenged the provisions on grounds that they infringed on constitutional rights and could be used to interfere with the retirement benefits of former presidents. The court also ruled that retirement benefits protected under the Constitution could not be reduced or withdrawn through the challenged provisions because of a former president\u2019s political activities. The ruling comes a week after another High Court judgment upheld the same restriction on retired presidents …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4251,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions\/4251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}