Court stops JSC from addressing complaints against Koome, other judges
Individuals leading the scheme to remove Supreme Court judges from office suffered a supreme blow after the high court in Narok suspended the Judicial Service Commission (JSC's) orders requiring the seven judges to respond to petitions seeking their removal from the bench.
A section of the JSC had on January 27 issued directions requiring Chief Justice Martha Koome, the president of the Commission, to submit responses with respect to the petitions.
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Koome's deputy Philomena Mwilu and their bench-mates Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung'u, Mohamed Ibrahim, William Ouko and Isaac Lenaola had also been required to respond to the petitions.
But a petitioner successfully moved the high court to stay the JSC's orders to the seven judges of the apex court. The petitioner had sued the JSC as the respondent seeking orders to stop further scrutiny of the judges.
"The ex-parte applicant is hereby granted leave to apply for an order of prohibition to prevent the (JSC) from continuing, maintaining, sustaining any such charges and or proceedings against (the judges) either under JSC petition numbers (withheld) or any other petition whatsoever either before it or at all," stated Justice Charles Kariuki.
"The grant of leave herein is to operate as a stay to stop the implementation of the decision by the (JSC) requiring (the judges) to submit responses in respect of the petitions and stop any further proceedings against the seven judges of the Supreme Court of Kenya pending the hearing and determination of the substantive Judicial Review proceedings to be filed following the grant of leave herein."
The orders were issued after activist Pariken Ole Esho made an application for the same as he prepared to make application to stop any scrutiny of the SCOK by the JSC.
He had made the application for the stay orders under a certificate of urgency as he prepared to sue the JSC to promulgate clear procedural rules consistent with constitutional principles and the rule of law for handling complaints against judges, magistrates and other judicial officers and to desist from continuing any charges against the said judges, magistrates and officers.
Esho was ordered to file the application within 21 days and serve it to the respondents and interested parties after filing.
These orders have greatly derailed the onslaught against the SCOK by lawyers who want to remove Koome from office or all the judges of SCOK.
The individuals had been running a character assassination campaign against the judiciary as an institution and Koome as an individual before settling on the SCOK to discredit its judges' reputation.
The matter will be mentioned on March 12, 2025.
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