President Uhuru Kenyatta is said to have omitted the 6 judges presented to him by the Judicial Service Commission over their questionable characters based on an intelligence report he received on them.
A report on the background check of the judges was presented to Uhuru by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and convinced the president not to appoint them.
This was after the 6 candidates had passed through the Judicial Service Commission interviews and successfully recommended for appointment by the Head of Sate.
According to a source privy to the matter and who spoke to the People Daily newspaper, some of the nominees were left out because of how they handled drugs and terrorism cases.
The case in question is that of the Akasha brothers who were jailed in the US after being set free by the Kenyan courts.
“The fact that the Akasha brothers were swiftly jailed in the US after long-periods of ‘monkey business’ in the local courts embarrassed the Judiciary, a matter that was acknowledged by retired Chief Justice David Maraga,
“The case was bungled in Kenya. The Akashas complained against some judges in their testimony,” the source told said.
Other than the drug trafficking case, one of the judges is on the spot for biasness in a land ruling.
The judge in question is accused of bending the law in a judgment to favour a litigant in a land case after receiving a huge bribe.
Another judge, the source said, was locked out because of “his propensity to give bail to terrorism suspects.”
During Chief Justice David Maraga’s tenure, Uhuru called out the judiciary for failing to act upon the Akasha brothers.
Maraga admitted that the judiciary had failed on that, he said;
“That’s a shame to our country and as I have said before, it is one matter that embarrasses every one of us, but I’m sure you have reports and you know how that is done. It is not only the Judiciary, but it also involves literally all of the stakeholders in the justice system.”
These revelations come at a time when Uhuru is facing sharp criticism over failure to appoint the 6 judges and the hurried swearing in of the other 34.
Political and law practitioners termed it as a revenge mission from the Head of State.
This is because among the judges that were left out were George Odunga and Joel Ngugi. The two were part of the bench that ruled against the BBI report.
