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{
    "id": 40219,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/40219/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 421,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Abdikadir",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1,
        "legal_name": "Abdikadir Hussein Mohamed",
        "slug": "abdikadir-mohammed"
    },
    "content": "The next issue which was really one of the most highlighted issues as far as this particular candidate was concerned was the issue of moral character. There were very many allegations against the candidate. One was that the gentleman had married and separated and divorced a number of times. That he had a divorce petition pending in court and he would be the Chief Justice when there will be a divorce petition in the court; that he was an activist with extremely liberal views. That the ideals and principles of the nominee’s current employer would negatively impact on his tenure as a Supreme Court Judge and the Chief Justice. It is also alleged that the institution; that is, the Ford Foundation advocates aggressive population control and explicit sexual education and that he champions ideals and lifestyles of homosexuality with registration by his firm of the Kenya Gays Lesbians Trust. Above all, that he, indeed, wears an ear stud. The Committee was very clear that to do justice, we had to clarify these issues and bring out these issues so that we could get clarification from the candidate. I can say that the Committee is satisfied with the explanations, clarifications and with the responses we got from the nominee on these matters. On this nominee and on the Deputy Chief Justice, the key issues are as follows: that these individuals have shown themselves to be a little bit outside the norm as far as their views on homosexuality and morality are concerned. And that they may use that part of their world view and impose it on the rest of the country, a country that is majority religious and majority conservative on those issues. On two issues specifically, on the issue of the family and whether the family is, indeed, marriage being between a man and a woman and on the issue of abortion. This came from the religious community in a very strong way. We did put these questions directly to the nominees. We were very happy that the nominee was very clear. In fact, he said that if he cannot read the Constitution so clearly on these matters, then he is a dimwit and he should not be confirmed for this position. He says the Constitution is very clear. It says abortion is not allowed. It says marriage is between a man and a woman. He said his fidelity will be the Constitution and he will be a true servant of the Constitution. We were more than happy with that answer and we are satisfied as a Committee. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with respect to the nominee for the Deputy Chief Justice, the broad queries and questions came around the same issues, indeed, that her moral values were not in tandem with the religious and cultural values that the majority of Kenyans hold. That she offered a PhD thesis or is finalizing a PhD thesis whose title is “Equality and Non-discrimination Principles and The Question of Homosexuality in Kenya”. It was also alleged that she worked very strongly with FIDA - these were allegations coming and not the views of the Committee - that holds very outlandish views on the issue of family. Again, there were Members of the Committee who were members of FIDA, who were not happy with those sentiments, but, indeed, those are the sentiments that came from Kenyans and we were required to listen to them and get the answers. Just like the nominee for the Chief Justice, the Deputy Chief Justice nominee was able to assuage our fears on this matter. She was very clear that we should hold her personal views separate from the law and that both her and the Chief Justice will not be the only people making judgements and rulings. They will do this in tandem with the other members of the Supreme Court, who I am informed were announced today by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). On the issue of whether she lacked"
}