Court of Appeal suspends High Court proceedings on ban against Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi

By Robert Mutasi

The Court of Appeal has temporarily blocked proceedings at the High Court over an indefinite ban given to Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi and his associates.

A three-judge bench consisting of Justices Pauline Nyamweya, Aggrey Muchelule, and George Odunga issued the suspension order that shall stand pending the hearing and determination of the appeal by Supreme Court judges.

This case started this year after the LSK filed its case to challenge the ban imposed on Abdullahi on January 18, 2024.

The LSK had argued that the undated ban by JSC violated the senior counsel's rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.

The High Court had earlier in the day, through Justice Chacha Mwita, ruled it had the jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter.

Justice Mwita said it was the duty of the court to determine whether his constitutional rights had been infringed, stating, "The court has a duty to determine whether his rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights have been violated."

The Supreme Court judges, however, argue that the High Court has no jurisdiction to try the case, basing their argument on the fact that they had filed an appeal against Mwita's ruling in the Court of Appeal.

They further claim that the trial of the case by the lower court would undermine the hierarchy within the judiciary, thus setting a bad precedent for future challenges of higher courts' decisions.

This appeal follows concerns by the Supreme Court judges that such involvement by the High Court could breach established norms of judicial authority.

They said matters relating to senior judicial officers, as raised in the case by Abdullahi, ought to be dealt with by the Supreme Court and not the lower courts.

A stay of the High Court proceedings by the Court of Appeal, in effect, puts the case on hold until a determination of appeal has been made.

What this means is that the issue as to whether the indefinite ban imposed on Abdullahi will be lifted or not will not be entertained by the High Court until the appellate court makes its ruling.

This suspension of proceedings will, in all probability, further muddy waters that are already rough in the continuing dispute over the ban on the senior counsel and its extended meanings with respect to judicial independence and the rule of law in Kenya.