High Court Judge Weldon Korir ruled that the Judicial Service Commission violated the law by purporting to admonish Justices Mohammed Ibrahim, Jackton Ojwang' and Njoki Ndung’u in 2016, after a complaint on gross misconduct was levelled against them.
"By admonishing Justice Ndung’u, the JSC crossed its constitutional and statutory boundaries which limits its powers to determining the merits of the complaint against a judge for the sole purpose of determining whether the petition should be send to the President,” ruled Justice Korir.
Considering that there was an allegation that the Supreme Court judges violated oath of office and went on strike at one time, Justice Korir said it was proper for JSC to have taken administrative action in this incident.
But since the JSC had found that indeed there a misconduct on the part of the judges over this specific allegation, Justice Korir pointed out that this was not defined as gross hence was not a ground for their removal as determined by the commission.
In Mr Mboya’s petition at JSC, he had accused them of acting in gross misconduct for by suspending the Court of Appeal’s verdict concerning the retirement age of former Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal and suspended retired judge Phillip Tunoi.
