“We are strangely repeating the mistake that Kenya made in 2003 when the country decided to take steps towards transitional justice and implement vetting against their judges due to the fact that vast amounts of corruption and strong ties with the executive authorities caused deep distrust towards the judicial authorities,” Bright Armenia deputy Arman Babajanyan said in parliament in reference to the drafted legislation authored by National Assembly Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan.
He said that in the same year, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission was formed in Kenya, which was meant to conduct a radical operation on the country’s judicial system. “Over the course of a few days, the commission presented information on corruption committed by many judges. The president of the Court of Appeals publicly demanded that those judges resign within two weeks or to quit serving, while at the same time being deprived of their pensions. And what happened? They were given one year to appeal the decision made against them. All of their positions were restored. The process was widely criticized due to political influences. The trust towards judicial power was not restored. The problem had gotten deeper.”
According to the deputy, an independent body dedicated to vetting was established eight years later when the Kenyan president passed a law in 2011 on implementing vetting against judges and prosecutors. “It is still enforced today and the sector is in a more stable condition. All of this was mentioned so we can consider why we chose to follow Kenya’s wrongful path.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
