Professor refuses to swear in God’s name “So help me God” while testifying in a Nairobi court.
There was drama when the lecturer refused to invoke God’s name while taking the oath as he prepared to testify in a Nairobi court.
Prof Karega Munene, a professor of history and a confessed atheist, had his way after he successfully persuaded Employment and Labour Relations Court judge James Rika against being compelled to swear in God’s name.
In a profound judgment, the judge urged Kenyans to reconsider the relevance of oaths and affirmations in judicial proceedings and public service, with the goal of discarding them.
He stated that no one should be forced to swear by God or sing a national anthem that acknowledges a deity in which they do not believe.
“The Constitution and the Oaths and Statutory Declarations Act do not compel anyone to swear by God,” said the judge.
He wondered whether the oaths and affirmations being administered in courts are feared morally and religiously that witnesses would not dare take them unless they are perfectly sure and beyond any doubt that their evidence is truthful.
“Does the invocation of the name of God in oaths put the fear of God in witnesses and compel them to tell the truth?” asked the judge.
Prof Munene stated on the witness stand that he will not mention God’s name while taking the oath.
He is a claimant in a dispute with United States International University (USIU) Africa.
The court agreed that Prof Munene would adduce his evidence without stating the words ‘So help me God’.
However, Justice Rika noted that although the reference to God in the Preamble and in the National Anthem appears on the face of it, Article 8 affirmed that there is no state religion and Kenya is, therefore, a secular state.
“Our legal system is secular, and the name of God is not a legal concept. Secular means not connected with religious or spiritual matters,” he said.
According to the judge, plenty of practices and laws that define the legal profession and judicial proceedings were archaic and based on misty Judeo-Christian and Roman traditions and should be discarded because they don’t add value to the practice of law.
He further observed that Latinisms, which permeate the legal discourse, horsehair wigs, baronial robes, and the requirement to administer and take oaths fall within this category of archaic practices.
“Swearing a witness by God, by body organs, or by slaughtering a male goat does not assist the course of truth and the administration of justice,” noted Justice Rika.
He stated that presidents, legislators, and other senior state officers are sworn in the name of God to uphold and protect the Constitution but “spend their entire tenure of office, mutilating and ravaging the Constitution”.
