Attorney General Githu Muigai withdraws application for President to pick CJ of his choice

Attorney General Githu Muigai. He has withdrawn an application to have the President pick a Chief Justice of his choice. (PHOTO: COURTESY)

Attorney General Githu Muigai has withdrawn an application to have the President pick a Chief Justice of his choice.

Prof Muigai, through lawyer Peter Wena told the Court of Appeal that he was not interested in seeking to have the JSC send three names for candidates of CJ and Deputy CJ to the President after both the commission and Law Society of Kenya accused him of illegally sneaking in the application.

"The instruction from the AG is that we withdraw the application that sought to suspend the High Court ruling which allowed the JSC to submit only one name to the President for position of CJ and DCJ," said Wena.

Appellate judges Patrick Kiage, Gatembu Kairu and Jamila Mohammed allowed the withdrawal but ordered the AG to pay all the other parties' court costs.

Senior counsel Tom Ojienda representing LSK argued that they suspected foul play in the manner in which the AG's application was admitted in the Court of Appeal and fast-tracked for hearing.

"It is not procedural the way the application was brought before the Court of Appeal. We suspect foul play given that it jumped the queue of all other important cases which deserved urgent hearing before this court," said Prof Ojienda.

He added there was no way the Appellate judges could suspend the High Court judgement when the AG had not raised convincing reasons to prove the State would suffer if the JSC does not submit three names to the President.

JSC on the other hand accused Muigai of betrayal, arguing that he was part of the commission's resolution to send only one name to the President for the position of CJ.