BY SAM ALFAN.
The High Court has ordered President Uhuru Kenyatta to appoint six Judges whom he left out when he picked 34 others in June.
A bench of three judges gave President Kenyatta to appoint the six judges within 14 days, after which they will have been duly appointed to the positions if the head of state does not act within two weeks.
“That an order is hereby issued directing the President Uhuru Kenyatta (1st respondent) to appoint the remaining six nominees as Judges to their respective courts, within the next fourteen days”, ordered judges.
The bench comprising of Justices George Dulu, William Musyoka and James Wakiaga directed the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and the Chief Justice Martha Koome to take up the mandate and swear the judges, in case the President does not appoint them.
“That upon the lapse of the fourteen days, in above, without the 1st respondent having made the appointments, it shall be presumed that his power to make them has expired and his office become functus, so far as the appointments are concerned, and the six nominees shall be deemed duly appointed, effective from the date of default, as Judges of the Superior Courts for which they were recommended”, judges further ordered.
JSC had in 2019 presented a list of 41 nominees to the president for appointment as judges of the High Court and the Appellate Court. It was not until June when President Kenyatta picked 34 judges leaving out six from the list. One judge died in a road accident before he was took over the job.
Those left out include High Court judges Weldon Korir, Joel Ngugi, George Odunga and Aggrey Muchelule, who had been picked by JSC to join the Court of Appeal. The President also left out magistrates Evans Makori and Judith Omange, who were headed to the High Court.
In the decision, the judges said the president has no power to vet or consult anybody over the appointment of judges.
The court said that the president relied upon a report from state agency that implicated the six that were unsuitable to be appointed as judges.
The court ruled that the report remained a secret as it was never produced before the Chief Justice or JSC to establish if indeed the judges were unsuitable for appointment.
The bench took issue the Attorney General for openly supporting the President over the rejection of the six judges.
They said as a member to JSC, the A-G sat through the vetting process and subsequently voted to appoint the judges.
According to the Judges, the action by the AG demonstrates conflict of interest that goes to question his integrity to hold public office.
They ordered the President and AG to pay costs of the suit.
Meanwhile Kenya Judges and Magistrates Association through their lawyer lauded the decision saying the President’s action of leaving out the six judges was discriminatory.
