Past rulings come back to haunt judge seeking CJ post

Past rulings came to haunt Supreme Court Judge Alnashir Visram, who was the first applicant to face the Judicial Service Commission’s interview panel for the post of Chief Justice in Nairobi on Monday.

This came as the commission set new interview dates for the seven non-shortlisted applicants for the post, among them a US-based university don, Prof Makau Mutua, retired Judge Aaron Ringera and Supreme Court Judge Jackton Ojwang, in compliance with a High Court ruling. The court had ruled that the commission consider them for interviews.

Justice Visram was asked to clarify why he granted hefty payments to plaintiffs in defamation cases where at one time he awarded powerful President Daniel Moi-era Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott Sh30 million in a suit against a newspaper.

He was also taken to task over how he arrived at the Sh25 million he awarded in another defamation suit filed against the UK-based publishers of the book, Dr Ian West Casebook, and its two authors.

The judge defended himself, saying awards in defamation suits were the discretion of a judge as it may be appropriate.

He argued that in the Dr West case, Mr Biwott was defamed in the hard cover of the book that was circulated in libraries worldwide and that the authors entered a consensual agreement to pay Sh10 million as damages.

A suit Justice Visram had also filed in 2011 against another local publication also came up, as he was asked to explain how he would cope with sharp criticism and debate about his performance as Chief Justice, and particularly from the media.

HIS STAND

Justice Visram, who is also the presiding judge of the Court of Appeal in Nyeri, would find himself in a tight corner again after Attorney-General Githu Muigai sought his stand on whether the death penalty would stay and on the homosexuality debate.

While he dodged the homosexuality question, promising to deal with it appropriately if it came to his desk, he maintained that the death penalty is not appropriate and challenged the courts to determine an appropriate sentence instead.

The judge pledged to automate all judicial processes in his first 100 days in office, such as filing of cases to ensure it is done any time of day to curtail corruption at the registry.

Justice Visram also promised to eliminate the current backlog of cases and set up structures for the training of expert negotiators to act as alternate dispute resolution mechanisms. He cited his record of training 300 such negotiators globally. He further promised to call meetings to “rebrand” the Judiciary to build confidence levels and to upscale the anti-graft war.

The judge also promised to build a more independent judicial system even as he cited the media as one of the obstacles to judicial independence.

Following the High Court ruling, the interviews for the included Chief Justice applicants will start on September 5, and end on September 13, while for post of deputy CJ and Supreme Court judge will be announced later.

“In complying with the directions of the court, the JSC will publish the revised schedule of interviews for the positions of Deputy Chief Justice and Supreme Court judge,” said the commission in a statement on Monday.