On Monday, lawyers in Nakuru staged a demonstration in protest of the decision by the judiciary to block one of the gates to the court premises.

The aggrieved lawyers converged at the gate and retaliated by blocking both entrances from access using their vehicles.

According to the directive from the head of the station, only the judicial staff were allowed to use the said gate.

But why were the lawyers so aggrieved?

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First, the Nakuru law court has two sections one is the main court which hosts two buildings namely the former and the new court building and the other section is the children’s court.

The main court building has two entrances with the main one being at the front along Moses Mudavadi road and the other from the back along Court road leading to the children’s Court and Central police station.

The gate at the back is the one affected by the directive which only allows access to the judicial staff. The reason was that allowing members of the public to use the gate would subject the judges to a security threat.

Following the directive, the security guards could not allow anyone to pass without showing one’s badge, something that angered the lawyers.

The lawyers complained that the closure of the gate would hinder ease of movement from the high court to the children’s court thus impeding access to justice.

“It is disrespect of the highest order to subject the lawyers to scrutiny by subordinate staff. There is nothing peculiar about the gate, only that it makes our work easier by saving us the trouble of going the long route,” said one of the lawyers, Mr Steve Biko.

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They bought padlocks and locked the gate, the public gate and the children’s court gate.

The lawyers then proceeded to the court singing solidarity and protest songs and were successful in causing the adjournments of two cases in two courts.

First, they entered Justice David Nderitu’s Employment and Labour Relations Court, “The court must adjourn! The court must adjourn!” They sang.

They did the same at the High Court before Justice Samwel Mohochi, despite his resistance.

“We do not want peace! We want to protest! Sichale must go! Ong’udi must go!” They continued singing.

The lawyers vowed never to engage with the Judiciary until they are allowed access through the said gates.

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However, services at the court resumed normalcy on Tuesday but the lawyers maintained to return on Thursday in a bid to push through their demands.

opendajoseph@gmail.com

Puzzle of Nakuru lawyers protesting over closed court gate

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Joseph Openda