Moi claims Mutunga bias over Sh2bn case

Former President Daniel arap Moi wants Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to disqualify himself from presiding over his dispute with a businessman who wants him to pay Sh2 billion for illegal detention.

Mr Moi, through lawyers Ochieng Oduol and Evans Ondieki, argued that Dr Mutunga and Justice Mohammed Ibrahim cannot be fair to him in determining the case because he detained them during his 24-year reign.

“The two judges were detained during Mr Moi’s administration and they believe it was the former president who sanctioned their detention. There is a feeling that they will use the case to revenge against the former president and so should recuse themselves from the Bench,” said Mr Oduol.

At the same time, Mr Moi filed an objection to Mr Stephen Muriithi's appeal, arguing that the Supreme Court should not admit it for hearing because it is not of any exceptional public interest.

“The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to hear his appeal. If they allow it, this will be a breach of the basic laws that stipulate that any dispute like the one he has filed is ended in the Court of Appeal,” said Mr Ondieki.

According to the lawyers, Mr Muriithi’s application does not involve an interpretation of the Constitution and so does not warrant the court’s intervention.

GUILTY OF CRIME

Mr Muriithi is contesting a Court of Appeal decision to deny him Sh2 billion Mr Moi had been ordered to pay him in compensation for forcibly taking over his businesses.

The businessman, a former intelligence director, had sued the former president for illegally detaining him in 1982 and taking over some properties they co-owned.

In 2011, Justice Jeanne Gacheche found Mr Moi guilty and ordered him to pay Mr Muriithi Sh2 billion in compensation for dispossessing him of his businesses.

Among the properties he claimed they co-owned were parcels of land in Nairobi and Nakuru that were registered under three investment companies — Fourways Investments Ltd, Sheraton Holdings Ltd and Mokamu Ltd.