Process to fill CJ post begins

The process to fill the position of Kenya's next Chief Justice begins in earnest next week.

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has said it will advertise the position of the CJ, his deputy and that of five Supreme Court judges early next week.

A select committee is expected to meet Monday morning to craft the advert before the JSC meets later to approve it. The advert will then run in the local dailies.

“Once completed, the advert will run in the local dailies on either on Tuesday or Wednesday,” said Ahmednassir Abdullahi after a JSC meeting at the Tribe Hotel, Nairobi Saturday.

"This will be one of the most transparent procedures in the whole world. No other country has filled in the position of the Chief Justice in this manner. We expect the whole process to take at least three weeks," he said.

Mr Abdullahi, who chaired the meeting, said it also resolved that the principal judges in the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Court Registrar would perform administrative duties in the Judiciary until a substantive CJ was appointed.

Mr Wako said members of the JSC were taking the matter seriously.

“We want to have a CJ in place as soon as possible,” he said.

There have been fears that there will be a vacuum when Justice Gicheru retires and some have even proposed the appointment of an acting CJ. This has, however, been opposed by the JSC and the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution.

Mr Wako said that with the absence of the CJ, the commission will not be ‘incapacitated’ as they still had the ‘quorum’ to undertake their mandate.

And he revealed that members of the commission had agreed to be chairing their meetings on a rotational basis until the country gets a new CJ.

“We shall be having ad-hoc chairmen which will be on a rotational basis which is perfectly legal. The JSC will be working and so is the judiciary,” he said.

The committee members are: Ahmednassir , Justice Isaac Lenaola, High Court Registrar Lydia Achode and Attorney General Amos Wako.

Chief Justice Evan Gicheru's term ends on Sunday.

Justice Gicheru made the decision to quit the Judiciary on Friday. He had the option of sitting in the court of appeal after being vetted but opted to go home.

The announcement by the JSC is now expected to kick-start the process to replace Justice Gicheru, which stalled after President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga failed to agree on the nomination of Justice Alnashir Visram as the next Chief Justice.

The other positions are a creation of the new Constitution.