THE Justice and Legal Affairs committee has warned the Judicial Service Commission it risked being disbanded if it failed to honor fresh summons to appear before it on Thursday.
Committee chairman Samuel Chepkonga criticized the JSC for failing to honor summons to appear before it yesterday as it investigates the suspension of Chief Registrar Gladys Boss Shollei.
Chepkonga said JSC was “not above the law” and warned its commissioners against snubbing parliamentary summons “as they represent nobody”. He described as “absurd” JSC’s decision to snub the committee summons, adding that the “JSC is not synonymous with the Judiciary”.
“The committee shall meet on Thursday as scheduled and we shall explore all options available to deal with the recalcitrance in the JSC,” he said. Asked whether disbanding the JSC was one of the options, Chepkonga demurred and said it will be up to members to decide.
A full meeting of the JSC yesterday unanimously resolved not to honor the summons issued last week by the parliamentary committee saying it was tantamount to interference with the independence of the judiciary.
The commission spent the better part of yesterday discussing how to respond to the summons. It also appointed lawyers to represent it in the case filed by Shollei challenging her suspension.
Shollei has already appeared before the committee and given her version of the events that led to her suspension. Chepkonga told Kenyans to be wary of JSC as it was an institution that is “answerable to no one and follows no law”.
“What are we to make of JSC considering the CJ himself has described it as a rogue institution. Kenyans should be worried and not allow the commissioners to play around with them."
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