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President William Ruto’s administration has trained its eyes on at least 10 judges that it wants kicked out over alleged corruption.

It has also emerged that the President has issued firm instructions to his political lieutenants to leave the onslaught against alleged corruption within the Judiciary to himself and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua.

The government’s strategy to deal with the alleged corrupt judges came to the fore a day before lawyers in the country staged a countrywide protest against the onslaught against the judiciary. Lawyers are this morning scheduled to hold sit-ins in courts and demonstrations.

Sources intimated to the People Daily that besides initiating the process to remove the ten judges, the state also intends to continue piling pressure on the judiciary to ensure that it toes its line. Those in the know say that at least four appellate judges and six of their counterparts in the High Court could be in President Ruto’s crosshairs.

One of the High Court judges is said to be a close confidante of Chief Justice Martha Koome while his other colleague has issued several orders against the government in petitions filed by dissatisfied Kenyans.

“All the vocal MPs and politicians allied to the President have been given strict instructions not to comment on the issue of judges as it would be seen to have been politicised. The President and his Deputy want to decisively deal with the issue in their own capacities,” a source told the People Daily yesterday.

Collate evidence

Sources say President Ruto has directed senior officials in his office to collate evidence implicating the ten judges in corruption for subsequent handover to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for action. And before this happens, the government is also burning the midnight oil to push for “friendly” persons to fill the vacant positions in JSC.

Terms of some commissioners are coming to an end this month, while others are before the end of the year. Other than taking bribes to make favourable rulings and judgments, some of the targeted judges are also being accused of allegedly being used by some forces to sabotage the government. Kenya Kwanza insiders say the President believes that some of the judges were sympathetic to the Azimio la Umoja Coalition during the campaigns leading to the last general elections and are not therefore comfortable with his administration.

The President has become increasingly angry with the Judiciary after some of his controversial tax policies were blocked by the courts. In November last year, High Court judges issued orders against the enforcement of new social housing and healthcare taxes, delivering a major blow to the President’s quest to push through his bottom-up economic agenda. The courts have also stopped the appointment of Chief Administrative Secretaries (CAS), Maisha Namba, Privatisation of parastatals, sale of Mombasa Port and Kenyan police contingent to Haiti.

In Nairobi, the court halted a move by Governor Johnson Sakaja to relocate PSVs outside the Central Business District (CBD). Sakaja had initiated a move to relocate matatus plying the Nyanza, Western Kenya and Rift Valley routes to the Green Park terminus. The court issued orders on Thursday, December 1 stopping the relocation of the matatus from their current locations pending the determination of the case on December 13, 2022.

The matter is pending Yesterday, Law Society of Kenya President Eric Theuri and Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah, while concurring that President Ruto is out to intimidate the judiciary to make it toe his line, said the JSC route was the best way for the President to deal with corrupt judges.

“That is the way to go….the president should hand over all the necessary evidence in his possession to the JSC to investigate so the implicated judges are accorded the opportunity to defend themselves. We are against the apparent public lynching of judges by the president,” Theuri told the People Daily.

“The president’s remarks were suspicious, especially coming at a time when the Court of Appeal was hearing the case of the housing levy that the executive had appealed,” Theuri said.

Follow due process

“So it’s an act of intimidation to the judges who were hearing those matters. What we are telling the president is that he should follow due process in this matter,” he insisted.

Omtatah on his part maintained that President Ruto must substantiate his claims of judicial bribery in cases related to the Affordable Housing Levy and the Social Insurance Fund. Omtatah, who is himself a litigant in one of the recent cases that the judiciary has ruled against the government, denied any involvement in bribery, asserting that he did not know any fellow litigants who had either bribed or attempted to bribe a judge or any judicial officer for a favourable ruling.

“I still challenge him to provide concrete evidence of any judge taking bribes or any litigant offering bribes. Let the truth come to light but if he has decided to take the matter JSC, I am happy and ready to turn up and give evidence if called upon,” Omtatah impeachment procedure to remove a judge once found to have “misbehaved” or is legally disqualified.

After one has been implicated unfit to hold the office, JSC will initiate his or her removal by acting on its own motion, or on the petition of any person to the JSC.

“One can be removed from the office on the grounds of incompetence, bankruptcy, inability due to perform the functions of office arising from mental or physical in capacity to mental or physical illness and gross misconduct.”

Article 168 of the Constitution of Kenya states. Alleged facts The petition to the JSC has to be done in writing, setting out the alleged facts constituting the grounds for the judge’s removal. JSC shall, therefore, consider the petition and if it is satisfied that the petition discloses a ground for removal of the im[1]plicated judge, it will send the petition to the President.

The President will then have 14 days upon receiving the petition to suspend the judge from office and act per the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission. The President’s team must comprise seven members.

The tribunal shall be responsible for the regulation of its proceedings and inquire into the matter expeditiously and report on the facts and make binding recommendations to the President. If the accused judge is aggrieved by the tribunal’s findings, he may appeal against the decision to the Supreme Court, within ten days after the tribunal makes its recommendations. The President shall act in accordance with the recommendations made by the tribunal. But the judge can opt to retire from office on attaining the age of seventy years even before tribunal’s recommendations are met.

This was the process used in 2013 when Justice Philip Kiptoo Tunoi was accused of receiving Sh200 million from former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero. Tunoi however, retired from the Supreme Court without the Tribunal concluding its investigations into the bribery allegations he faced. President Ruto has over the last few days sustained an onslaught against the judiciary, claiming that some judges have been making unfavourable rulings.