Justice Radido elected Judges and Magistrates Association president

Justice Stephen Radido during an interview with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for a position as a Court of an Appeal Judge. [David Njaaga, Standard]

Justice Stephen Radido of the Labour Court has been elected the new president of the Kenya Judges and Magistrates Association (KJMA) beating the Incumbent Derrick Khaemba Kuto.

Radido emerged victorious in the elections held on December 16 where he got 340 votes to Kuto’s 144 votes.

Radido is based at the Kisumu Labour and Environment Court while Kuto is the Mavoko Senior Principal Magistrate.

He will be at the helm for two years and is eligible for re-election.

Kuto had filed a case where he sought to stop Radido from running for the presidency but Justice Chacha Mwita ruled in Radido’s favour.

“Having considered the petition, responses and respective arguments by parties, the inevitable conclusion is that there was no violation of the petitioner's known rights,” said Justice Mwita.

In the case, Kuto argued that the decision by the KJMA council to consider Radido’s nomination was unlawful and unconstitutional.

He was elected KJMA president on December 11, 2021, for a two-year term having served the association as Secretary General.

His term was set to expire in December 2023 but he was eligible for re-election.

On August 28, 2023, KJMA Executive Director Daniel Sepu called for the applications that were to be closed by September 19 and elections slated on November 25.

Kuto made his application to run for KJMA president and when the list of nine candidates for the six elective positions available came out, he was the only presidential candidate.

In court, he argued that he was elected unopposed since no other candidate had been included in the final list of candidates.

Justice Radido filed a complaint on September 26 with the Executive Council about his missing nomination forms in an email sent to all members on August 25.

The council re-opened the nomination period for two weeks with the deadline being October 16, 2023, after deciding that Radido’s exclusion was an administrative error.

Following the decision by the council to reopen the nomination, the election date was moved from November 25 to December 16.