Parliament wants JSC members investigated

Judicial Service Commissioners address a press conference. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

Nairobi, Kenya: A parliamentary committee report has recommended that President Uhuru Kenyatta sets up a tribunal to investigate six commissioners of the Judicial Service Commission accused of impropriety.

The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee wants commissioners Ahmednasir Abdullahi, Samuel Kobia, Christine Mango, Mohammed Warsame, Emily Ominde and Florence Mwangangi investigated by the special tribunal for flouting the law.

Just a day after a court order sought to stop the committee from tabling the report, the chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee Samuel Chepkonga (Ainabkoi) tabled the report. The National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi said there was no way courts could stop what the House had already set in motion.

The MPs cited Chapter Six of the Constitution on Leadership and Integrity and Article 161(1) which designates the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary as the accounting officer and administrator of the Judiciary Fund, as those that had been breached by the commissioners who sit on the JSC’s Finance and Administration Committee.

The House team said the commissioners had, on the face of it, flouted the Public Finance Management Act, National Police Service Act, and the Advocates Act, plus the Constitution, and it was for a tribunal to investigate and advise the President if the assessment of the House was right.

The bottom line is that the commissioners overstepped their mandate, and flouted the law, the MPs noted in their report.

The MPs said they had a prima facie case against the commissioners following allegations that they used their position in the JSC’s Finance and Administration Committee to approve a resolution asking the Inspector General David Kimaiyo not to charge judicial officers who were being held by the police.

“The charge is related to alleged withdrawal of Sh80 million from one of the Judiciary’s account. It is alleged that the resolution was delivered by the Judicial Service Commission and approaches made to the office to give effect to the resolution,” read the committee report.

SUFFICIENT GROUNDS

“Upon due consideration, the committee found that the claim herein disclosed sufficient grounds to warrant the petition. Supporting materials should be forwarded to the President to constitute a tribunal to fully investigate the matter,” says the the report.

The MPs have also singled out Ahmednassir for what witness Brian Yongo submitted before the committee. The MPs believed Yongo when he said that he “shared profits” with Ahmednassir in violation of the Advocates Act and contrary to Chapter Six of the Constitution.

“Yongo made presentations and delivered materials to the effect that commissioner Ahmednassir’s papers leading to his admission to serve as an advocate had been forged and that the advocate who purportedly signed the commissioner’s papers for admission to the Bar was not licensed to practice as such advocate,” the MPs added in the report tabled in the House yesterday.

They also said Ahmednassir had “abused” his office when he “occasioned” the sacking of Leonard Kamweti from National Bank. They want the President to form a tribunal which will reveal what exactly happened.

The Justice and Legal Affairs team received two petitions to have the six commissioners removed from Mr Alex Kibii and Nicholas Riungu Mugambi. It also received submissions from the former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Gladys Boss Shollei, the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury Henry Rotich and the Inspector General of Police, David Kimaiyo.

INORDINATE DELAY

Mugambi, in his petition, says the JSC commissioners encroached on the mandate of the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Gladys Shollei by “purporting to approve or disapprove expenditure of monies allocated to the Judiciary thereby causing inordinate delay in processing of salaries for judicial staff,” contrary to Article 161(2)(c) of the Constitution

The MPs said they were aware that they had no mandate to recommend the removal of commissioners, but that their job was to establish if there were sufficient grounds to have the President form a tribunal to sack the commissioners.

The report will be debated next week. If approved, President Kenyatta will be forced to suspend the commissioners until the tribunal is done with its job. The commissioners will earn half their pay while serving their suspension. The tribunal, under the Constitution, will have to conclude investigations within 30 days.