LSK/JSC elections about protection of the Judiciary

 As the five-year tenure of Justice Mohammed Warsame as the Court of Appeal’s representative to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) comes to a close, the court goes to the polls on January 26 to elect its new nominee. Those who have thrown their hats in the ring are Justices Patrick Kiage, Gatembu Kairu and Fatuma Sichale.

As for the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), polls will be held one month thereafter on 29/2/2024, to elect a male representative to the JSC to replace Macharia Njeru. The choice will be between the outgoing LSK president, Erick Theuri and an unsuccessful former LSK presidential candidate, Omwanza Ombati. Alongside the LSK/JSC representative elections, will be the polls for the governing council of the LSK out of which five candidates are seeking the presidency, namely former LSK vice-president, Carolyne Kamende Daudi, the outgoing LSK vice-president, Faith Odhiambo, Harriet Mboce, Bernhard Ng’etich and Peter Wanyama.

There will be several other contestants for the position of vice-president and for the 11 council members representing different stakes within the LSK, together with elections for the members of the advocates disciplinary tribunal.

More than ever before the said elections will be about candidates who can protect and guard against the current unwarranted aggression and assault on the judiciary by the executive arm of government that is so determined to intimidate and threaten judges to do their bidding and deliver favourable decisions. It will take a bold and independent JSC to protect the judges and magistrates from unnecessary, unwarranted harassment, intimidation and threats.

The Deputy President, Rigathi Gachagua, has already made the threat real by stating that he will lead from the front and will, therefore, be lodging a petition for the removal from the Judiciary of Justice Esther Maina of the High Court for having delivered an adverse finding in a suit filed against him by the asset recovery authority (ARA).

The said complaint is outrightly malicious, if not political and is an afterthought, considering its timing and considering that it is being lodged two years after the judgment complained of.

As soon as the new government was elected, ARA disowned its previous representations and hurriedly recorded a consent in the court of appeal allowing the refund of money that had been confiscated pursuant to Justice Esther Maina’s judgment for which the DP is now baying for her blood. The honourable judge’s sole mistake was to have dispensed justice without fear or favour against a potential deputy president. Actions by ARA are akin to the director of public prosecution’s enabled acquittal of the Arror and Kimwarer dam cases against former Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich.

The test and consideration on the forthcoming election will therefore be on how forceful a candidate can defend the Judiciary, the more reason why all the LSK aspirants led from the front during the LSK protests and demonstrations on January 12.

Mr Sumba an advocate of the High Court