By Lamu Reporter
Former Chief Justice David Maraga has criticised the national government’s handling of the ongoing standoff involving Burundian immigrant entrepreneurs, saying the matter was handled unprocedurally and outside the confines of the reciprocity and free-movement guarantees that bind East African Community (EAC) member states.
Speaking on the matter in Shela village, Lamu county Maraga argued that the crackdown on foreign small-scale traders, which triggered anxiety among Burundian nationals and reports of harassment in parts of the country, did not follow the diplomatic and legal channels expected of a government operating within a regional bloc built on the free movement of persons, labour and goods.
He maintained that a directive alone cannot override Kenya’s obligations under the EAC Common Market Protocol.
The former CJ further warned that President William Ruto’s remarks on the matter may have placed Kenyans working and doing business in other EAC partner states in a precarious position, cautioning that such nationals could now face reciprocal harassment or even expulsion in those countries.
He said the dispute, which has already sent Burundian nationals scrambling for travel documents at their Nairobi embassy, could have been managed through more diplomatic engagement between Nairobi and Bujumbura rather than a unilateral public directive.
Maraga also turned his attention to the standoff between the government and Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited, the soda ash miner whose operations at Lake Magadi trace back to 1911 and which has been ordered to cease operations in Kenya over alleged non-compliance with local content and regulatory requirements.
He argued that the Ministry of Mining’s own position, that the dispute stemmed from a compliance issue, suggested the matter could have been resolved through a fine or a corrective compliance framework rather than an outright shutdown of a company that has, in his view, delivered direct and indirect benefits to surrounding communities for over a century.
The former CJ and United Democratic Movement (UDM) party leader said the government’s handling of the Tata Chemicals matter risked sending a discouraging signal to current and prospective foreign direct investors, who might now fear similarly abrupt action should compliance disputes arise in future.
Maraga further faulted the national government over its handling of the prolonged nurses’ and doctors’ dispute, noting that the standoff had dragged on for weeks even as doctors threatened to join their nursing colleagues on the picket line before the nurses’ strike was finally called off this week.
He argued that the crisis exposed a deeper failure by the state to get its spending priorities right.
He singled out State House expenditure, which he said had so far gobbled up an estimated Sh36 billion this year, arguing that such resources could have been better directed at resolving the healthcare workers’ grievances and shoring up service delivery in public hospitals.
Maraga said the recurring pattern of delayed government response to pressing national concerns, from regional diplomacy to investor relations and healthcare, pointed to a broader crisis of priorities within the Ruto administration.
