EADB defends judge Tuju wants fired over Sh1.6b case

Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju. He wants Justice Mary Kasango to recuse herself from his Sh1.6 billion loan case with EADB. [File, Standard]

East Africa Development Bank (EADB) on Tuesday defended a judge who Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju wants to be fired for alleged bias in their Sh1.6 billion loan battle.

 The bank, in its reply to Tuju’s application for Justice Mary Kasango to withdraw from the case, argued that the petition before Judicial Service Commission is yet another tactic by the politician to delay the hearing of an application to have him jailed for contempt of court orders.

“The filing of a petition for the removal of a judge is not a ground for recusal. The petition itself is highly speculative and without any basis in fact and should not be a basis for recusal. The court has no way breached the Judicial Code of Conduct or the Constitution. These allegations are unsupported by evidence and are highly spurious,” argued EABD lawyer Fred Ojiambo.

 He continued: “The recusal application is a thinly veiled attempt to intimidate the court and delay the hearing of the matter. In this regard, it should be noted that Justice Tuiyott has already recused himself from handling insolvency proceedings.”

The senior lawyer claims that Tuju had previously asked two more judges to withdraw from the case while at the same time refusing to honour orders requiring him to hand over Dari Limited to receivers.

 Before the Court of Appeal, the bank claims that the firm owned by Tuju is under guard by armed police officers who allegedly are under the politician’s instructions.

 “The applicants’ behaviour smirks of impunity, is detrimental to the rule of law, and such impunity is investments in Kenya as such impunity and blatant breach of law discourages investors who cannot be assured of their contractual agreements will be enforced in default,” the bank claimed.

Meanwhile, Tuju today laid out his grievance on why he wants a commercial judge not to hear the battle him and East Africa Development Bank (EADB).

 Tuju in his new war targeting Justice Kasango in a battle for his prime Karen property claims that she was biased towards him.

He accuses her of allowing contempt proceedings against him and his children to proceed despite them filing an application to halt both the receivership and bankruptcy proceedings filed by EABD.

 According to Tuju, he had filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal which stayed the execution of a United Kingdom judgment allowing EADB to pursue more than Sh1.6 billion from the politician.

 Tuju has since filed a petition before Judicial Service Commission to have the judge removed from office, and used the petition as the basis of asking her to withdraw from the case.

 Justice Kasango will rule on the recusal application on October 21.