The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has asked President William Ruto to appoint a tribunal to investigate Justice Mohammed Noor Kullow with a view to removing him from his position as Judge of the Environment and Land Court.
JSC, in a statement shared with media houses on Wednesday, March 6, said it had received five petitions for the removal of the judge from office. As a result, it set up a panel to interrogate the petitions and last month, the panel said three of the petitions had merit but the other two did not.
Based on this, and its own findings, JSC, which is chaired by Chief Justice Martha Koome, resolved to initiate proceedings for the removal of Justice Kullow from office, for delaying or failing to deliver rulings or judgments in a total of 116 cases.
In a statement, CJ Koome said: “The Commission was satisfied that three out of the five petitions as well as the proceedings at the commission’s own motion had disclosed grounds for the removal of Justice Kullow from office over gross misconduct, incompetence, and violation of the Judicial Service Code of Conduct.”
In another matter, the JSC announced that Principal Magistrate Patrick Wambugu faces dismissal for gross misconduct, specifically for altering bond terms resulting in the release of a defendant charged with defiling a minor.
“In the discharge of its disciplinary mandate over judicial officers and staff under Article 172 (2) (c) of the Constitution, the commission resolved to dismiss Hon. Mr. Patrick Wambugu, Principal Magistrate, from service for gross misconduct.
Wambugu was accused of irregularly altering bond terms that resulted in the release of an accused person who had been charged with the defilement of a six-year-old. The accused has since jumped bail.
Since January 2023, the JSC has been inundated with 85 petitions and complaints against judges, with 37 dismissed and 30 under preliminary evaluation. Eleven cases await responses from judges, while three are slated for hearings. The rest were forwarded to President William Ruto to appoint tribunals to hear the cases.
The Judiciary has in recent months come under intense pressure to crack down on corrupt and errant judges and magistrates, who have been accused of subverting or delaying justice.
A Nairobi-based lawyer told the Nairobi Law Monthly that a magistrate struck out an out-of-court settlement that her client and another litigant had entered into over a minor traffic offense.
The magistrate, based on the outskirts of Nairobi, then rendered a ruling on the matter. In another case, she said, a magistrate in the children’s court accepted a bribe from one parent to influence the outcome of a custody case, negating the principle that the interests of a child are paramount in such cases.
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