Righting the wrongs: Justice Clever Mule Musumali’s legacy of judicial activism revisited

Many judiciaries in Africa have been carped for their allegedly complicit role in the violation of constitutions and the undermining of the rule of law in the post-independence state. In this connection, an African human rights lawyer once lamented that: [t]he judiciaries in common law African countries must take substantial responsibility for the collapse of constitutional government …. The judiciary in many of these countries deliberately and knowingly abdicated its constitutional role to protect human rights and, in many cases, actively connived in the subversion of constitutional rule and constitutional rights by the executive arm of government. Whether one agrees with this sentiment or not, it is, to many judges, a sobering indictment. It is undeniable that, perhaps with the general exception of the Kenyan, Malawian and South African judiciaries, which have consistently acquitted themselves fairly well and with remarkable decency too, especially in recent times, many judiciaries in the African region are still reeling from the devastating effects of political intimidation that has undermined their confidence to check on executive excesses and the blatant disregard of the rule of law.