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Two Judicial officers are on the spot for alleged gross misconduct in a case where a Nairobi businesswoman is charged with the theft of Sh2.5 million from her former boyfriend.

Asking Milimani Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina to allocate the case against Pheny Okwaro Owino to a new magistrate, defence lawyer Ochieng Oduol accused the two judicial officers of bias and giving orders that are not on record.

“I wish to bring to the attention of this court that Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Nanzushi has been reading rulings in open court which are not in her certified court records,” Oduol told Onyina.

He further accused another magistrate Esther Kimilu of compelling the accused to repay the funds she allegedly received from her former boyfriend Alfred Omondi Achar.

Protesting the conduct of the two magistrates, Oduol said he had asked the Judicial Service Commission to investigate them and have them removed from the Judiciary for falsification of the court records and bias.

“Your honour, we have lodged a complaint to the JSC and sought the removal of the two magistrates for judicial misconduct, tampering with the court records, falsification of records, bias, prejudice and lack of decisional independence,” Oduol told Onyina.

In the letter received by the JSC on June 9, 2023 from Triple OK Law Advocates, the two magistrates are accused of bias and siding with the prosecution and the complainant, Achar, who is based in the United States of America.

The letter claims that on June 6, 2023, Nanzushi delivered a ruling stating that the theft case against Okwaro was to start afresh while in her court file record, she indicated that the matter would proceed from where it had reached.

Okwaro had sought to have the case start afresh and Achar recalled to testify again but Nanzushi declined, according to her court record. “A glance of the typed ruling reveals that there is a major discrepancy in the decision that was delivered in open court in my hearing and the typed ruling as certified by the court on June 6 2023,” the businesswoman informed Onyina.