Kenya: Judicial Activism - an Unbearable Evil or a Godsend?

18 August 2012
opinion

Earlier this week, a group of lawyers including my good friend Christopher Kibe Mungai, were up in arms against what they termed- albeit in a thinly veiled way- excessive judicial activism. The lawyers-who also included Dr John Khaminwa, Jeniffer Shamallah and Charles Kanjama-came short of declaring that they had no confidence in the judiciary as presently composed and as presently predisposed to act.

But what exactly is Judicial Activism? Black's Law Dictionary defined judicial activism as a "philosophy of judicial decision-making whereby judges allow their personal views about public policy, among other factors, to guide their decisions..." The flipside of judicial activism is Judicial Restraint, which is defined as "the philosophy of judicial decision-making whereby judges base their decisions on the doctrine of 'stare decisis' (relying on precedents) to maintain the status quo..."

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