This archive report was first published on 16 December 2019.
Published on December 16, 2019, a court ruling on the appointment of 41 judges is set for February 6, 2020.
Forty-one judges appointed in July 2018 to join the appellate, land and labour courts have been left in limbo, awaiting a court ruling on whether to compel President Uhuru Kenyatta to have them sworn-in.
Senior counsel Paul Muite, representing the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), told a three-judge bench that President Kenyatta has a constitutional mandate to nominate and swear-in persons recommended by the JSC for appointment.
Mr Muite argued that the Constitution requires the President to discharge his constitutional mandate, and that the JSC has the authority to appoint judges.
He noted that the JSC chairman, Supreme Court President and Chief Justice David Maraga, presented the names of 11 judges appointed to the Court of Appeal, 20 to the Environment and Lands Court, and 10 to the Labour Relations Court on July 22.
However, the President shelved the appointments after receiving intelligence reports about some of the nominees, which allegedly bordered on corruption.
Mr Muite said that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) volunteered information about some of the nominees, but nothing was stated against them, and that the JSC would have asked them to clear their names if any adverse information was provided.
He also noted that the Attorney-General failed in his duty in summoning the NIS director to get secret information about some of the judges.
Mr Muite urged the court to allow a petition seeking to compel President Kenyatta to nominate and swear-in the 41 judges, citing a previous decision of a five-judge bench that compelled the President to execute his constitutional mandate.
On the other hand, the International Economic Law Centre and lawyer David Kariuki Ngari support the President in declining to appoint and swear-in the nominees, arguing that if there are corruption allegations, they must be cleared first.
