Ombudsman Otiende Amollo to face contempt of court charges

Chairperson of the Commission on administrative Justice ``Ombudsman`` Otiende Amollo speaks at the commission offices in Nairobi on Wednesday,October 22 [PHOTO:COLLINS KWEYU/STANDARD]

Ombudsman Mr. Otiende Amollo will face a contempt of court case even after announcing that he is leaving office next month.

NGO Coordination Board Executive Director Mr. Fazul Mahamed has said that even if Amollo will no longer be in office, he will still have to face him in court for disobeying a court order barring him from investigating and publishing a damaging report about him.

Mr. Amollo announced on Thursday evening that he will leave office voluntarily from next month. He said he has given notice of voluntary resignation to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

This came a few hours after being sued for contempt of court by the NGO Board boss for releasing a report recommending that Mr Fazul be replaced from office for allegedly abusing his powers and allegedly not having requisite academic qualifications for his job.

“The contempt of court case is against Otiende Amollo as a person. So it doesn’t matter if he resigns from office. He has to be held accountable for disobeying a clear court order,” he said on Sunday.

On October 27th, High Court judge George Odunga issued orders blocking the Ombudsman from investigating Mr Fazul or making public the investigation report.

The order was to be reviewed on Monday 14th. Contempt of court charges attract fines or jail terms if the accused is found guilty.

“The court order was effectively served and received by the Ombudsman’s office on 1st November. The Ombudsman, being aware of the court order, maliciously and in flagrant breach of the order, insisted on publishing the investigations report,” said Fazul in a statement through his lawyer George Kashindi.

He added: “The ombudsman is a constitutional body and its role is to assist in the administration of justice. It is very grave when such a constitutional commission decides to act maliciously and to defeat justice in disregard of court orders in order to achieve personal vendetta and to deny Kenyans justice.”

Amollo is leaving office a year before his term ends. He first made public his plan to leave office in July this year.