Only one judge will hear your case against court martial, KDF officers told

Nairobi, Kenya: A case filed by military officers challenging their prosecution by a court martial will be heard by one judge.

Samuel Sabuni, a former Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officer had wanted the matter heard by a three-judge Bench but High Court judge Justice Weldon Korir found that the matter could be aptly tackled by a single judge.

Three military officers Sabuni, Jackson Mungai and Samuel Muriuki based at the Eastleigh Airbase, who have moved to the court under a certificate of urgency, accuse the court martial of infringing their fundamental rights.

Sabuni appeared before Justice Korir, through his lawyer Odera Were, saying the case has weighty matters that need to be addressed.

“The fact that conflicting decisions have been issued by the High Court shows that it’s a weighty issue,” Were argued.

However, Korir said he was not persuaded by this argument. “The fact that conflicting decisions have been made in regard to issuance of conservatory orders does not elevate the matter to the status of one raising weighty issues,” the judge said.

In May before Justice George Odunga, Odera submitted that: “Sabuni has been prosecuted by incompetent persons who do not have authority to prosecute as the convenor of the court martial is not an employee of the Judiciary yet the court falls under Judiciary.”

Sabuni, who has been sentenced for one-and-a-half years in jail for being absent from duty argued that there was need to comply with the law in the interest of justice.

Contract expired

“I was charged in a court martial for being absent without leave yet I had informed the court that my engagement with the KDF had expired hence I was not subject to the force’s Act 2012,” submitted Sabuni in a sworn affidavit.

He added that before he was arraigned in the court, he was placed under closed custody at the Defence headquarters for about 30 days and thereafter at the Moi Airbase for three months.