Equality before the law

Sir,

Questions around who gets charged, who doesn’t or who gets bail and who doesn’t, continue to grow as public confidence in the Judiciary wanes. The unfortunate consequence of this is the rising incidents of citizens resorting to taking the law into their own hands.

Of late, public confidence in the Judiciary is at an all-time low because of decisions taken that do not seem fair and just.

Effect

A fairly wide section of our society feels that Section 20 of the Constitution, which advocates for equality before the law, is merely a clause of no force or effect. This is precisely why people are resorting to violence in dealing with matters that would otherwise have been adjudicated by the courts.

Compounding such thinking, for instance, are reports that an otherwise dormant Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), suddenly becomes visible when it has to probe an ‘enemy’ of the State as it were. Calls for the emerged that ‘justice was for sale’ in this country, there had been no effort by any State organ to probe these allegations.

The alleged interference in cases in the highest courts of the land has also been raised in the matter involving Galp and Big Tree Filling Station, but there has been no response known to the public thus far.

Accusations

The law prescribes that all remain innocent until proven guilty. I do worry though, that this is probably what the Judiciary says of itself in its echo chamber of independence, thus finding no reason to act on any of the accusations levelled against it. We are left with no option but to appeal to the Head of State before the country degenerates into a state of lawlessness.