Lady Justice Roselyn Nambuye of the Court of Appeal. [George Njunge, Standard]
The search for Kenya’s next Chief Justice and Supreme Court judge is now unimpeded after the Court of Appeal overturned a lower court’s ruling which stopped the exercise last week.
The Appellate Court said Tuesday that the High Court erroneously issued the order stopping the process without determining whether it had jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Justices Roselyn Nambuye, Patrick Kiage and Sankale Ole Kantai noted that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and the Attorney General (AG) lodged a strong case with a high probability of success.
JSC had appealed the order by the High Court arguing that it was unjustified, wrong and could plunge the country into a constitutional crisis.
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“The Constitution is clear that a vacancy in the CJ’s position must be filled within six months. There are only two more months remaining since the vacancy occurred and if the orders are not lifted, the country is going to be plunged into a constitutional crisis,” the commission’s lawyer Eric Gumbo said.
On April 21, the High Court in Nairobi stopped the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) from evaluating the CJ candidates after completion of interviews.
High Court Judges Anthony Mrima, Reuben Nyakundi and Wilfrida Okwany allowed JSC to continue with the interviews but ordered the commissioners not to make any further considerations to evaluate the most suitable person of the 10 applicants for CJ’s position.
The judges also stopped the Commission from conducting interviews for a Supreme Court Judge to replace retired Justice Jackton Ojwang, pending determination of three petitions challenging the processes.
The Chief Justice interviews which attracted 10 candidates ended last week on Friday.
