The President has not come with clean hands - Court of Appeal told during BBI hearing

The Court of Appeal has been asked to turn a deaf ear to President Uhuru Kenyatta's appeal on the High Court ruling which nullified the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) referendum bill.

In his submission at the Court of Appeal, veteran Senior Counsel Dr John Khaminwa elaborated that the President had violated a fundamental rule for those who seek the indulgence of a court in a matter.

Dr Khaminwa accused President Kenyatta of filing an application with the courts yet he had what was termed as "unclean hands".

The law "doctrine of unclean hands" in layman's terms is an argument presented by the defense team seeking to have the court forgive a certain act because the party which is bringing the matter to court acted in an inequitable or generally unfair way.

Dr Khaminwa accused President Kenyatta of violating the principle through utterances he made while in Kisumu for the Madaraka Day celebrations.

Dr John Khaminwa during a past trial This is a small boy - Miguna Miguna's lawyers, Dr John Khaminwa & Harun Ndubi badly humiliate attorney general's representative ece-auto-gen

He went on to elaborate that the President has demonstrated a general lack of respect for the courts and that the courts needed to treat his application with disregard.

"The President of the Republic of Kenya, Honourable Uhuru Kenyatta has filed an application and I'm inviting you very respectfully, my lords, that you do not take note of the application.

"While he was at Kisumu, he made certain remarks about judges. He has failed to get, two judges who were involved in this case at the High Court, to be sworn in as Court of Appeal judges," the 85-year-old lawyer began.

He went on to demonstrate why the two actions by President Kenyatta amounted to coming to court with unclean hands.

"When you come to the court you must come with clean hands, my lords, the President has not come to this court with clean hands at all and I'm humbly urging that you borrow a leaf from South Africa, from India and Pakistan and say to him, 'No. We shall not hear you.' The orders that were made by the Court of Appeal must stand. He has deliberately refused to swear in judges and it is my humble submission that when you are coming to court you cannot despise a judge and at the same time appear before the judge and expect the judge to give you orders at all," he stated.

Senior Counsel John Khaminwa ece-auto-gen

He added: "When we appear before your lordships we come with tremendous humility, we speak politely to you, we praise you. That praising and humility and that courtesy that we extend to the court is not for you personally but for the good of the entire country to get our people to continue to have confidence in our Judiciary and in the administration of justice in our country."