Judicial team drafts CJ job advert

Registrar of the High Court Lydia Achode swears in Chief Justic Evan Gicheru during the promulgation ceremony at Uhuru Park in Nairobi in August 2010. Mr Justice Gicheru’s term at the helm of the Judiciary expired on February 27, 2011. Photo/FILE 

By NATION REPORTERPosted Sunday, February 27 2011 at 23:12

A select committee of the Judicial Service Commission is meeting on Monday to craft the advertisement for the positions of Chief Justice, his deputy and five other judges of the Supreme Court.

Once the team that consists of Attorney-General Amos Wako, lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi and High Court registrar Lydia Achode are done with it, they will later on be joined by the rest of the JSC members to approve it.

The advert inviting applicants to apply for the positions will then be published in the local dailies either on Tuesday or Wednesday, said Mr Abdullahi at the weekend.

Most transparent

“This will be one of the most transparent procedures in the whole world. No other country has filled in the position of the Chief Justice in this manner. We expect the whole process to take at least three weeks,” added Mr Abdullahi.

The announcement by the JSC is now expected to kick-start the process to replace outgoing CJ Evan Gicheru that stalled after President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga failed to agree on the President’s nomination of Mr Justice Alnashir Visram.

Mr Justice Gicheru’s term at the helm of the Judiciary expired on Sunday. (Read: Chief Justice Gicheru calls it a day)

The new Constitution sets the qualifications for an individual seeking to be appointed as either the CJ or Supreme Court judge.

Those seeking the position must have at least have 15 years’ experience either as a superior court judge, a distinguished academic, judicial officer, legal practitioner or in any other relevant legal field.