Former Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Faith Odhiambo has urged President William Ruto to fully comply with the High Court’s decision declaring his Cabinet unconstitutional, saying the ruling is a reminder that no arm of government is above the Constitution.
In a statement issued after the landmark judgment on wednesday, Odhiambo said the decision reaffirmed that the Constitution is binding on the Executive just as it is on every other state institution.
“Yesterday’s High Court judgment in Petition E015 of 2024 is a decisive reminder that the Constitution is not advisory,” she said.
Her remarks came a day after a three-judge bench ruled that President Ruto’s Cabinet violates the two-thirds gender rule under Article 27(8) of the Constitution and directed the Head of State to reconstitute it within 120 days.
The judges found that the current Cabinet has 18 men and seven women, falling short of the constitutional threshold, which would require at least nine members from the underrepresented gender in a 25-member Cabinet.
Odhiambo said the judgment goes beyond gender representation, arguing that it is about respecting the Constitution and ensuring that constitutional principles are not treated as optional.
She maintained that appointing a few women at the last minute would not address what she described as a long-standing pattern of non-compliance with the law.
“Tokenism and afterthought appointments cannot cure systemic exclusion,” she said, adding that the two-thirds gender principle is a constitutional obligation and not a favour extended to women.
The LSK president also criticised both Parliament and the Executive for what she termed years of failure to implement the gender rule, saying the two institutions have repeatedly fallen short of their constitutional responsibilities.
She warned President Ruto against using the 120-day window granted by the court to make superficial political changes instead of implementing the judgment in full.
“If the President treats these 120 days as a window for cosmetic reshuffles or political horse-trading, he will be in open defiance of a binding court order and of the very Constitution he swore to uphold,” Odhiambo warned.
The ruling is the latest chapter in Kenya’s long-running battle over the implementation of the two-thirds gender rule, a constitutional requirement that has remained largely unfulfilled since the 2010 Constitution came into force despite several court decisions and repeated calls for compliance.