Petitioner now protests JSC failure to act on complaints
By Eric Wainaina, November 14, 2019The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is once again on the spot for allegedly failing to act on complaints lodged by some Kenyans dissatisfied with the performance of five judges.
One of the dissatisfied petitioners has now sent a protest letter to the commission, accusing it of failing to act on two petitions which he filed about five months ago seeking the removal of the judges.
He had accused the judges of gross misconduct. Zack Kinuthia, a political scientist and also a law student at the University of Nairobi, reportedly submitted the protest letter to JSC on Tuesday, demanding an explanation on the status of his petitions which he had filed on June 10, and June 12, 2019 respectively.
In his petitions, Kinuthia had asked JSC to remove judges Mumbi Ngugi, Hellen Omondi, Francis Tuiyot, Chacha Mwita and William Musyoka while the other one was against Justice Mwita over two different rulings.
In the June 10 petition, he accused the five judges of blocking prosecution of Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu over fraud case on grounds that an order issued by the Director of Criminal Investigations probing her accounts had no bearing to the case.
But Kinuthia, who had also sought to block the appointment of Ngugi, Omondi and Tuyoit to the Court of Appeal at the initial stages of the interview process, took issues with the May 31, 2019, ruling which he argued was based on alleged bias.
The petitioner averred that their determination was well calculated to ensure a specific outcome in favour of Mwilu in spite of glaring facts of law. However, his petition, he said was never looked into.
“Writing these petitions does not mean that we have indicted the judges, we only ask the JSC to probe area where something went wrong and take action where they find fault based on facts. The Judiciary must also ensure that its officers are accountable,” he said.
In the second petition, he has been seeking Mwita’s ouster over his ruling in which he ordered police to give businessman Jimi Wanjigi, back guns which were confiscated at his Muthaiga home in October 16, 2017.
But JSC vice-chair Mercy Ndeche told the petitioner to be patient, saying the commission is handling hundreds of cases.
“We get very many petitions; we have about 500 of them and what we normally do is that we look at them and where there are issues, we set hearing dates to give the judge an opportunity to respond and that definitely takes time,” she told People Daily.