This archive report was first published on 15 July 2020.
On July 15, 2020, a High Court judge made the unprecedented decision to disqualify himself from hearing the murder case of former Kabete MP George Muchai.
The MP was killed alongside his three aides in Nairobi in 2015, and the case has been ongoing for several years.
Justice James Wakiaga directed the case file to be placed before the presiding judge of the criminal division for re-allocation to another judge for trial and determination.
The decision came after five of the seven suspects charged with the murders claimed that Justice Wakiaga was biased and asked him to recuse himself.
However, the judge dismissed the recusal application, stating that there was no evidence of bias and that the application was aimed at delaying the determination of the case.
"The applicants’ main ground is that they were not granted bail. I find that there is no ground that can support the applicants’ appeal for recusal and the application is misplaced with the sole purpose of derailing the path of justice," Justice Wakiaga said.
Despite dismissing the recusal application, Justice Wakiaga noted that the five accused persons had walked out of his court on May 30, 2019, during trial, and had shown remarkable disrespect to the court and made false and unfounded allegations against the character of the court.
The five accused persons, Eric Mungera Isabwa, Raphael Kimani Gachii, Mustafa Kimani Anyoni, Stephen Astiva Lipopo, and Simon Wambugu Gichamba, had also written a letter of complaint against the judge to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and had asked the commission to institute a tribunal to investigate him on the basis of incompetence and gross misconduct.
