Kenyans fear reporting magistrates during vetting, Chairperson Sharad Rao says

NAIROBI: Fear has made the public to shy away from reporting incidences of corruption against judicial officials currently being vetted, the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board has said.

Board chairperson Sharad Rao said the vetting process depends on the information provided either for or against an official.

"We cannot operate in a vacuum. We need feedback from the public on the magistrates we are vetting," said Rao, adding that some people fear because they might have been involved in compromising the judges or they benefited too.

He said in the past, the public perception was that the Judiciary was corrupt and therefore the board was expecting many people to come out and report on corruption yet this is not the case.

Due to lack of information from the public, the board is now concentrating on financial audit of magistrates to ascertain if at all they were involved in any corrupt activity.

Bank statements

"We are asking for wealth declarations and bank statements of those appearing before us during vetting and putting them to task to explain how they have acquired some questionable wealth within a short period," he said.

The board, which is on its second day of vetting, is seeking updated documents of magistrates and judges to ascertain if they were involved in any wrongdoing.

Rao claimed that most magistrates and judges who joined the Judiciary before August 27, 2010, were not competent enough, adding that due process was not followed.

He regretted that some may have found their way to the Judiciary due to their closeness to the Cabinet or powerful people in the government.

Rao said it was for this reason that it was important to look at the magistrates' conduct before they joined the system.

Guided by the section 18 of the Judges and Magistrates vetting Act, other areas the board is looking at when vetting include how the judicial officials have been fair to those who appear before them.

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