President William Ruto’s increasingly bitter political exchanges with his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, have acquired a new legal dimension after the High Court declared unconstitutional the law restricting retired presidents from holding political-party office and allowing Parliament to interfere with their retirement benefits.

The judgment by Justice Bahati Mwamuye comes barely a week after another High Court judge, Justice Lawrence Mugambi, upheld the same restriction, setting up a rare conflict of judicial interpretation over the political rights of former presidents.