Reprieve for judge as board barred from firing him

By ISAIAH LUCHELI

Kenya: The Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board has been barred from degazetting High Court judge Muga Apondi.

The court also ordered that Apondi, who was found unsuitable by the vetting board, retains his status as a judge and all benefits to that office, pending the hearing and determination of the case.

The court also directed the file be forwarded to the Chief Justice for appointment of a three-judge bench to hear the matter.

Through lawyer Jeremy Okonjo Justice Apondi, said the board and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) had moved to de-gazette him and had already stopped paying him any salary, benefits or remunerations following the board’s decision.

“The respondent has deprived the applicant of his source of livelihood and has deprived him of significant economic opportunities by virtue of the nature and impact of its findings,” the lawyer told the court.

In his petition, the judge submits that the board flouted his constitutional rights during the vetting and sought the court to reverse the decision. Apondi wants the court to declare that the determinations of the vetting board dated January 15 and March 22 this year were unconstitutional, and therefore null and void.

“The process of vetting and decision of the board as contained in the determinations have infringed on the rights and fundamental freedoms of the petitioner under Articles 25, 27, 28, 32, 33, 36, 40, 41, 47, and 50 of the Constitution and are therefore null and void,” said Okonjo.

The judge argued that the vetting process and the decision arrived at exceeded the board’s constitutional and statutory mandates under the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Act and the laws of the land.

The judge wants the court to prohibit the JSC and the Government Printer against degazetting him pending the final determination of the petition.

“A conservatory order be directed at the JSC to the extent that the petitioner’s terms of services under the Judicial Service be maintained as if he was on suspension, pending the final determination of the petition,” submitted Okonjo.