Reprieve for 13 magistrates as vetting board verdict reversed

At least 13 magistrates a vetting board had declared unfit will continue serving.

A court ruling limited the mandate of the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board to the period before the new Constitution came into effect yet these magistrates were hired after 2010.

This means the board cannot act based of what a judge or magistrate did or failed to do after the new law.

Those the board had declared unfit are Colesa Okore Asis, Joseph Ritho Ndururi, Gilbert Kimutai Too, Robinson Onyoni, Innocent Maisiba, Walter Onchuru and Isaac Orenge. Others are Dauglas Machage, George Sagero, Sogomo Gathogo, Timothy ole Tina, Ruth Maloba and Phylis Shinyada.

However, the board managed to nail four magistrates - Ireri Anne Irungu, Dennis Abraham, Teresa Muthoni Mwangi and Michael Oduor Kizito. In its report, the board says these magistrates failed to make a case for review after their applications failed.

The Sharad Rao-led board cannot also punish judicial officers, a responsibility that has been reserved for the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
“Even though a number of officers we vetted were found unfit to serve, the ruling reversed our decisions,” Mr Rao said yesterday.

Speaking at Anniversary Towers, Nairobi, he said the board had been under pressure to review its decisions after the court declared some of their actions unconstitutional.

“We wish to stress that had it not been for the Supreme Court’s finding that our mandate is limited, applications for review would not have succeeded,” said Mr Rao.

The board had already forwarded details of information and complaints on each of the magistrates to JSC as advised by the court.

DISCIPLINE OFFICERS

Lawyer Dennis Mosota called on the JSC to use its inherent mandate to discipline officers found to have committed offences while in service.

“The fact that the vetting board cannot punish them does not mean that the wrongdoing of the officers should go unpunished,” said Mosota, an LSK council member.

“The fact that the Supreme Court barred the vetting board from acting against these judges and magistrates does not mean they have escaped the scalpel.

Survivors can and must now be brought before the JSC for disciplining. Some of their alleged actions constitute gross violation of the Constitution and are sufficient for their removal as judicial officers,” said Mr Mosota.

Mr Rao said his board whose term ends on December 31, 2015 will from next week conduct vetting outside Nairobi for the first time.

“This is in the spirit of devolution and respecting the sentiments of the 47 counties where the board will summon magistrates from the larger Western region and Kisumu in the pilot phase,” he said.

The board is pressed for time after losing nine months last year due to a suit on the extent of its mandate.