Koome fights to shake off claims of incompetence

By Isaiah Lucheli

High Court Judge Martha Koome became the first judge to be publicly vetted giving room for Kenyans to closely scrutinise allegations of incompetence leveled against her.

The judge represented by lawyer George Oraro had been accused by businessmen SK Macharia of allegedly ignoring some factors when she made a bankruptcy ruling against him.

The nine Court of Appeal judges who underwent vetting opted for private sessions and the public only came to know of the accusations leveled against them and their fate during the release of the board’s findings last week.

Despite the high number of complaints from the public, senior public figures and advocates, Koome went ahead to request for the open forum.

The Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board had a difficult time working on logistics to facilitate the public vetting, which included hiring of seats and airtime to ensure live streaming of the process.

The exercise, which was expected to begin at 9am, was delayed for more than two hours.

The public began flocking the board’s offices as early as 8.30am and security personnel had a difficult time controlling the crowd and some were directed to watch the live streaming outside due to lack of space in the boardroom.

Macharia complained over a decree that had been issued over a piece of land that he had sold and his bankruptcy suit. He claimed the decree was fraudulently obtained.

Denied him statements

The Media Owners Association chairman protested over a move by Koome to proceed with bankruptcy suit against him yet he had filed a case seeking the nullification of the decree.

Macharia was, however, taken to task for more than two hours by counsel, Oraro over the allegations that he had raised against the judge.

The board chairman Sharad Rao, however, reminded Macharia that vetting was not a court and also cautioned against prejudicing an appeal that had been filed by Macharia at the Court of Appeal.

Koome explained that she had gone through all the documents and listened to the evidence that was adduced before the court before coming up with her verdict.

The other complaints leveled against the judge was by a murder suspect who claimed that she had denied him statements to enable him prepare his defence. But Koome said the defence lawyer had the statement.

An advocate who had launched complaints against all the appellate court judges to the board also complained that Koome had enjoined unknown persons as interested parties in a case involving Baringo County Council.

A fourth complaint over the judge’s work at the Kitale High Court was deferred to a later date to enable the complainant, Geoffrey Onyiengo, to come before the board and testify over a case involving the custody of children.