Another high drama on TV as search for judges starts

By Wahome ThukuKenyans will be treated to another spectacle beginning Monday as 25 candidates are grilled in the search for Supreme Court judges.
In what is now dubbed a must-watch show, the country will be glued to television as judges and lawyers get details of their private and professional conduct spread out before the Judicial Service Commission.
For all the drama, only five people are needed for positions in the Supreme Court to be set up later in the year. The court will have seven judges, two of whom will be the Chief Justice as president and Deputy CJ as the deputy president.
Sixteen men and nine women have been short-listed for the weeklong interviews for possible appointment to the Supreme Court. The JSC received 56 applications in April.

A section of the Judicial Service Commission during interviews for CJ and deputy positions. Photo: File/Standard

Keen public interestThe live televised interviews by JSC panellists are now a household occasion since they were first conducted last month in the search for a new CJ and deputy.
Eight judges who failed to be nominated for the two slots will be back for another round of questioning for Supreme Court slots on June 13 and 14.
They are Court of Appeal judges Riaga Omolo, Alnashir Visram and Joseph Nyamu and High Court counterparts Hannah Okwengu, Mary Ang’awa, Msagha Mbogholi, Kalpana Rawal and Martha Koome.
Apparently Justice Omolo, 64, who is the senior most judge in the Judiciary was a member of the JSC but stepped down to contest the CJ post.
If the JSC keeps to tradition the proceedings will be televised again from the interview room at the Anniversary Towers in Nairobi.
Court of Appeal Judge Philip Waki, who has not featured in the past interviews, will be the first in line early Monday morning.
Waki, 61, will be carrying the credentials of having successfully led a commission that investigated the 2007 post-election violence and coming up with the popular "Waki List" of suspects that catapulted him to public limelight. After the 2003 purge in the Judiciary, he became the first judge in Kenya to be publicly investigated for alleged misconduct. He was cleared of all allegations of corruption and returned to the Judiciary.
Other candidates include Court of Appeal Judges Emmanuel O’Kubasu, Philip Tunoi and Erastus Githinji, High Court Judges Muga Apondi, Mohamed Ibrahim, Ruth Sitati, Jackton Ojwang and Jessie Lesiit.
Court of Appeal Judge Samuel Bosire, one of the longest serving judges, has been the most unfortunate in his bid for higher posts. He failed to get the CJ position and was left out in the shorting listing for the Supreme Court.
Bosire, 63, was the only one not short-listed out of the eight Court of Appeal judges who sent applications. But, he is one of five judges who are sitting as a Supreme Court to interpret several provisions of the Constitution. The Court of Appeal has 11 judges. Three of them, Onyango Otieno, Daniel Aganyanya and Moijo ole Keiwua have expressed interest in any new positions.
Prominent applicantsOther prominent faces that will appear before the JSC are former Nominated MP Njoki Ndung’u, Lady Justice (rtd) Violet Mavisi who headed the Independent Constitutional Resolution Court, University of Nairobi’s Law School dean Prof James Odek, School of Law lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Smokin Wanjala, Kathurima M’Inoti and Wilfred Nderitu.
Dr Wanjala is a former Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission deputy director, while Mr M’Inoti is the Law Reform Commission chairman. Mr Nderitu is a former ICJ-Kenya chairman.
Fifteen High Court and Industrial Court judges applied for the Supreme Court positions. Six of them, Mathew Emukule, GBM Kariuki, David Onyancha, Scholastica Omondi and Jeanne Gacheche and Justice Samuel Mukunya of the Industrial Court were not short-listed.
Other prominent applicants who missed in the shortlist include retired judge Schofield Derek, current KACC Assistant Director Pravin Bowry, and long serving Chief Magistrate Unita Kidulla. Justice Schofield served as High Court judge up to 1987 when he resigned over political interference in his work. He immediately left the country with his family.
In 1996, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar, but was suspended and a tribunal set up to investigate his conduct. He is known for his strong support of human rights and the independence of the Judiciary.
The new JSC has identified itself as an independent institution different from the moribund one that was the commission under the old constitution. The JSC comprises of nine members and is chaired by the Chief Justice.
High Court Judge Isaac Lenaola and Nairobi Magistrate Emily Ominde represent the Judges and Magistrates Association to represent the Bench.
The LSK is represented by its former chairman Ahmednassir Abdullahi and Florence Mwangangi. Other members are Prof Christine Mango, who is the acting chair and representing the public, Attorney General Amos Wako and the Public Service Commission chairman Titus Gatere. And as judges scramble for the higher seats, magistrates below them are rushing to fill up the possible vacancies. The JSC will later conduct interviews for positions of High Court and Court of Appeal judges.