NAIROBI, KENYA: Nairobi based advocate and former Law Society of Kenya Chief Executive Officer Apollo Mboya has filed a petition seeking to remove Supreme Court Judge Njoki Sussana Ndungu from office.
In a petition addressed to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), Mboya questions Njoki’s professional competence and integrity among other issues during the case of Raila Odinga versus IEBC and two others in regards to the August 8 general election.
Raila Odinga filed a petition in Supreme Court challenging the outcome of presidential results in which Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared President Uhuru Kenyatta winner. The Court however overturned the win citing malpractices.
Four Judges including Chief Justice David Maraga agreed with the nullification of Uhuru’s win while two (Njoki Ndung’u and Jackton Ojwang) dissented.
The two judges in their verdict, read separately, found that National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga failed to prove that the results announced at the constituencies had issues.
In a petition referenced compounded misconduct against Njoki Sussana Ndungu; Mboya (a former Law Society of Kenya boss), argues that Njoki exhibited total lack of courtesy and civility towards her fellow colleagues in the Bench of Supreme Court while delivering reasons as to why she disagreed with the nullification of Uhuru’s win.
According to the petitioner, the Judge lacks Judicial temperament, exhibited lack of professional competence, and engaged in acts that were in complete disregard of the principles of due discharge of the judicial office.
He says that particular elements of misconduct exhibited by Njoki is that in paragraph 662 of her dissenting judgement, she states that “The court however had no option to personally exermine the original forms deposited in the registry; the majority did not do so,” and proceeds in paragraph 669 to state that “in the interest of justice’ she examined each forms that had been disputed.
Mboya says that if the assertion is true, then Njoki ought and must have examined each of the disputed forms on 28th and 29th August 2017 before she delivered her dissenting judgement on September 1st which she amplified in her detailed dissenting judgment on September 20.
He further says that Njoki in her summary dissent judgment did not allude to the fact that she examined and verified each of the disputed forms if at all before arriving at the decision to dissent.
“Hon Njoki dishonestly ignored the forms tendered by IEBC for scrutiny and based her judgment on forms and materials not tendered for scrutiny,” he argues noting that it was not humanly possible that the judge examined all the disputed forms from the date from the date of hearing August 28 to the date of summary judgment of September 1.
Mboya also says that the Judge exhibited total lack of courtesy and civility towards colleagues in the Bench.
