End of an era as top judges sent packing

The Judiciary was in shock on Wednesday after four of the country’s top appellate judges were removed from the Bench.

President of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Riaga Omollo, and Justices Emmanuel O’Kubasu, Samuel Bosire and Joseph Nyamu, were declared unfit to hold office by the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board.

Justices Omollo, Bosire and O’Kubasu have been on the Bench for more than 30 years, having started their careers as magistrates and working their way up the ladder.

They are first, third and fourth in seniority at the appeal court.

The fourth judge, Mr Justice Nyamu, was a top private sector lawyer before joining the Judiciary as a High Court judge.

He, together with Justices Omollo and Bosire was interviewed for the post of Chief Justice last year. The reasons given for their removal are shocking: ranging from a lack of  independence,  incompetence, accepting gifts from litigants, lack of professionalism and supporting authoritarianism.

Justice Omollo and Justice Bosire were with the Appeal Court in Kisumu on Wednesday, but did not immediately wish to talk to the media.

They have seven days to appeal to the Vetting Board. There were indications that court battles, especially on composition of the board, could be on the way.

Mr Sharad Rao, the chairman of the vetting board, while releasing the results of the vetting process that began on February 23, said their decisions were final and not appealable.

Despite this, Mr Rao said those dissatisfied with the decision had a right to apply for a review of their verdict as outlined under Section 22 of the Vetting of Judges and Magistrate Act, which states that this can be done within seven days.

According to the Act, the board may, however, choose not to grant this request unless the complaints by the judges are based on the discovery of a new and important matter which was not within their knowledge at the time the determination was made.

“And this lack of knowledge on the part of the judge or magistrate should not be due to lack of due diligence; or on some mistake or error apparent on the face of the record,” reads the Act.

On Wednesday, Mr Rao said his team had cleared five other senior Judges. They included Justices Onyango Otieno, Erastus Githinji, Alnashir Visram, Philip Waki and Philip Tunoi.

Supreme Court

Apart from the five, the other Court of Appeal judges that are yet to be vetted include Justices Kalpana Rawal, Hannah Okwengu, Roselyne Nambuye, Martha Koome, Paul Kihara, Wanjiru Karanja and David Maraga.

They are expected to be vetted when the board interviews High Court judges.

Mr Rao also disclosed that the board would on Thursday and Friday vet Supreme Court judges Jacktone Boma Ojwang and Mohammed Ibrahim.

The decisions of the board,  he said, were based on evidence that had been obtained from the public, the Law Society of Kenya and the Judicial Service Commission, who had questioned the suitability of the affected judges to continue holding office.

“We were not carrying out a purge but a vetting process… our objective was not to punish, exonerate or reward a judge, but to help restore public confidence in the Judiciary,” said Mr Rao.

Specific parameters

“The board was aware that the vetting process was of its own kind…it cannot be equated with impeachment or a disciplinary hearing…we had to function carefully and appropriately within the specific constitutional and statutory parameters,” he went on.

According to Mr Rao, Justice Omollo had been accused of authoritarianism while on the Bench, inconsistency, lack of independence as well as partiality.

He said the judge was challenged over a series of decisions he had given in highly publicised political matters, in all of which he appeared to lean in favour of authoritarian repression “rather than open up ways for democratic expression”.