Attorney General Githu Muigai launched a scathing attack on Monday, in what he termed as a hijack of intellectual public debate by ignorant “have been” lawyers.
Prof. Muigai referred to these lawyers as “clearly ignorant self serving have been former lawyers” even as he blamed them for bringing about a deterioration on the quality of public discourse in the country.
The AG has been on the receiving end with some lawyers slamming his “high treason” interpretation of the constitution in regard to the proposed swearing in of opposition chief Raila Odinga.
Prof. Muigai did not name anyone by name but referred to one public commentator as a “so called distinguished Doctor, Professor, something,” and said another was a sitting Senator.
He however gave numerous examples of the attacks leveled at him going as far as referring to one comment from these advocates as “ignorance on stilts” in his offensive.
“One fellow said the Attorney General should never comment on criminal law as the role of criminal justice is the Director of Public Prosecutions. This is ignorance on stilts. The AG is chief legal adviser of the government, and defender of rule of law; all law, including criminal justice,” said Prof. Muigai.
The AG stated that the blame on the deteriorating quality of public debate lay on two groups of individuals: lawyer politicians and “so called public intellectuals.”
“They comment on every public issue. The more ignorant they are on the subject matter, the louder they will comment in the media and on social media websites. They never seem to keep their mouths shut on issues they have no idea about.” he said.
