Haven't gone through all the posts in this thread so,may be some one has aired sentiments similar to mine.
There is a mistaken belief amongst non-Muslim Kenyans that the Muslims want special treatment. After all 'Why do they want their court in 'our' constitution?'
We forget how this thing came about....
Yash Pal Ghai and his CKRC team went around the country collecting views from all Kenyans on what they want included in the constitution. During those hearings,the Muslims proposed the inclusion of the Kadhi Court in the constitution as a 'High Court'.
Their aim was to give it more teeth to enforce its rulings and make them binding. Currently,this Court is a toothless bull dog which is ignored by anyone who wants to do so.
Anyway,at that time,anybody who cared to go to CKRC do so and said whatever he/she wanted and it was recorded....the submissions in raw form used to be available on the ckrc website...don't know if the site is still there...
If the Christians and Hindus wanted to have their Courts,the could have submitted the proposal to CKRC.
So really,it is not a question of seeking special status. Rather,people were invited to make submissions and the Muslims made theirs.
BTW: I made a submission for the creation of a tribal house of parliament as an upper house; but that's a story for a different thread. Point is,we were free to propose anything we wished and if there were enough people suggesting a particular thing,it would find it's way into the draft constitution.
I guess my tribal House was a lone idea.....
Still though,we need to be a little more accommodating and figure out how to give this important court teeth to enforce its rulings. An Act of Parliament does not work.
At Bomas,the Kadhi Court was relegated to a subordinate court [magistrates court] from the level of High Court.
Perhaps this gives us a procedure for creating new courts in the future. If an interest groups wants a Court,they first have under an Act of Parliament for,say,10 - 20 years; see how it works; then upgrade it into the constitution.....
To answer the question of the thread; I don't have a problem with the Kadhi Court in the manner proposed at Bomas.
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